Jacob Jackson and the Shame of Olympus
by Project Phoenix Agent 003
Summary: Camp Half-blood is under attack from all sides. They are despised by mortals, hunted by monsters, at war with their won kind, and  Olympus itself will soon be under siege from the ultimate power. Their only hope is a series of choices that will test all.
1. Welcome Back

_**First off, let me just say that you, the readers, saved this story. What's better, you also helped to make it better. This thing was almost a forced, cheesy, poorly written bog standard sequel. With any luck, it won't be that way now. SO I thank you all. You're the best readers I could ask for.**_

_**I know when I dissappeared back in...a while ago, I said i would update this daily. Well, the steps that wuold be necessary for that to happen cannot be taken. But i figured I'd kept you all waiting long enough, so here it is! Jacob Jackson's second great adventure! **_

_**To any and all new readers! Welcome to my world. Both my PJO AU and the world I inhabit, one filled with time traveling zombies, cyborg sidekicks, and lethal girlfriends. Yeah. You learn to like it.**_

Percy's POV

I watched as the last remnants of the monster dust was taken away by the wind, and it felt like the wind had taken the sky off my shoulders. I actually dropped Riptide, letting it clatter to the floor. I dropped to my knees a second later then promptly fell flat on my face. A light could of dust briefly jumped up before slowly drifting back down to the ground.

"Percy?" If it had been anyone else calling out to me, I'd have ignored it. But instead, I pushed myself back up to my hands and knees, and warily looked up to my wife. Blonde, battle whipped hair with patches of blood and monster dust fell from her head, and I remembered the day she'd died in front of me.

The very thought of the memory sent shivers running through my body. The bullet tearing into her, that one soldier just doing what he thought was right. But she was here now once again, thanks to the son of Hades currently dusting his own self of monster remains.

And that son of Hades just happened to be married the woman who'd saved them all as well. Mrs. di Angelo examined her shield, which shone with the face of Medusa, and felt the dent in it. Even with the grit of battle, cuts and scrapes, and her tattered clothes and mussed up hair, she looked incredible. Nico was a lucky man.

"Percy?" But I was even luckier. Annabeth Jackson reached out a hand to help me up, which I grudgingly accepted. Nothing personal, I just don't want to look weak in front of the others. I am our fearless leader after all.

"I'm fine," I assured her, and my knees nearly buckled before I caught myself. She gave me a look that said _You were saying? _"…pay no attention to that."

Annabeth smirked. "You may have to distract me a little…"

I smiled, taking the hint. But before I could close the gap between our lips however, Travis cleared his throat louder than I would have thought possible. Annabeth and I turned to him in time to see Thalia and Nico pull away from each other. I guess we all forgot Travis is still single and doesn't exactly enjoy his various friends making out in front of him.

"Sorry buddy," Nico laughed. "We'll find a good girl for you yet."

Travis quake in fear at the thought of _Nico _setting him up with anyone. I just laughed at the thought, letting the happiness come and go before turning to the situation at hand. Mortals were scattered here and there moaning in pain. At least three cars that I could see were overturned. Two of them had live occupants. The third…didn't.

"Help now," I instructed. "Flirt later."

Nico, Thalia, and Annabeth all let out a varied degree of a sigh. Travis didn't have a single complaint. The five of us spread out through the streets, helping who we could even as many cursed our existence. I got another bruise from some woman who kept screaming, "_Don't touch me! Get the hell away from me! I'd rather die than take help from you freaks!" _It's perfectly natural for people to hit someone trying to save them from the sixty pound slab of concrete that was crushing them.

Yeah, I really hate Queens. Polls put it as the most anti-demigod hub on the planet...which is why The Pit had so graciously decided to round up as many monsters as they could and set them loose in the center of the place.

The sheer, tangible hate of the people is why we'd decided to leave the kids of Camp Half-Blood out of this and take care of it ourselves. The Pit had to be running out of monsters to sic on us, right? Sooner or later they'd have to face us, and then things would even out.

The Pit. They'd started out as a small, rag tag group of evil half-bloods who didn't return to Olympus once Kronos had fallen. Then, they collected a couple of rejects who hated their parents and wouldn't mind killing some of us. Then my son and some of his buddies beat the living snot out of all of them, and they decided they needed another numbers boost. So they kidnapped three quarters of the new generation of demigods, and trained them to hate the gods. All in all, The Pit now outnumbered us by a lot.

And they kept us on our toes with monster attacks and secret plots to give them more advantages, including the ultimate one. You see The Pit had, through a one of those plots mentioned earlier, freed the ancient god and former ruler of the universe Uranos. The ultimate power. Only problem is, he's gone insane to the point where all that seems to be on his mind is complete and total destruction. Which is why The Pit can't let him loose…yet. They've tried rebuilding Uranos's shattered…everything in a variety of ways. Too many to go into at the moment.

When the clean-up was said and done, the five of us left the hostile territory and headed to the "safety" of Camp. If nothing else, Annabeth and I could visit Jacob (And it was a great day to anyway). I wonder what he's doing right now…

_**A little shorter than I would've liked, but maybe I'm wrong. What is Jacob doing? How about his friends? The Pit? More importantly, how long has it been since Sins of the Fathers? All will be revealed in Chapter two. Or three. Or ten.**_

_**Phoenix Chapterly Challenge: What is the agency number of my cyborganic sidekick? (Submit answer along with a review.)**_


	2. Alex Rules

_**Chappie Two is here. For anybody new to the Trilogy, I would like to introduce our little children of the prophecy: Jacob L Jackson and Alex di Angelo. Yeah, those last names are interesting aren't they? I'd explain, but that would take too much time. Just go read Sins of the Fathers and then get back to me.**_

Jacob's POV

"Ohhh gods!" I screamed as I fell straight down to from my perch high up until I crashed into the ground. Sounds echoed through my ears. It sounded like a vague mixture of laughing and…what was that?

It sound a lot like someone one falling. A bone jarring impact connected with my back, legitimizing my theory. I let out a groan to signal whoever had fallen on me to get off. The weight on my shoulders was lifted, and a few moments later I hauled myself up.

"Sorry 'bout that," Henry apologized. "I'm not of a climber…and Alex cheats."

"You just suck and you know it Kelp Head," a familiar voice called from the top of the climbing wall.

Henry and I looked up to Alex, who waved to us from the top. She turned away to begin her decent, which consisted of alternately letting go of the wall, skidding across its surface, and catching herself whenever she threatened to plummet out of control. A whole three seconds later, I'd gotten a lot of dirt kicked into my eyes and Alex was grounded once more.

"I win again boys," Alex teased. "And you know what that means."

"Why do I always bet against you Hybrids?" the young son of Poseidon grumbled. "You have an unfair advantage."

"Aw, you're just a sore loser," Alex laughed.

Wondering what a Hybrid is? It's this quirky little creature you get when two demigods have a kid. The resulting spawn usually has the powers of _both _his parents, and as such is more powerful than the traditional demigod. Alex and I are both Hybrids. Alex being part Hades and part Zeus, while I hail from the very paradoxical blend of Athena and Poseidon.

"You're a sore winner," I shot back, trying to stall what was coming next.

_Sore winner? Lamest comeback EVER! _Miz chuckled.

Oh yes, did I forget to mention I have a talking sword? Well, talking isn't the right word. More like, voice-in-my-head-that-only-I-can-hear. Trust me when I say it's a lot more annoying than it sounds. I'm pretty sure I've used up enough air to last a week muttering "Shut it Miz."

"Call me what ya want Smart One," Alex said casually. "You know what you have to do."

Henry and I exchanged a glance and sighed in unison. We both walked out into the middle of the cabins, and after swallowing our pride, followed through on our bet.

"Excuse me!" I called, getting every nearby camper's attention. "If I could have all of you're attention for a moment please! Thank you, this will only take a second…"

Once I was sure I had everyone's (including Chiron's) attention, I spoke. "I would just like everyone to know, that I suck. And that I'm an idiot, I can't hold a sword straight, and I am officially inferior to Alex di Angelo, who is the greatest half-blood of all time."

Henry chipped in his bit. "And my tan is fake."

There was a chorus of laughter as Henry and I walked in shame to our respective cabins. Okay fine, Henry didn't walk away in shame, it was just me. I shut and locked the door to the Demigod Cabin (cabin for Hybrids only) and groaned before flopping down into my bunk.

"Worst bet ever," I mumbled into the pillow.

"No kidding," a mocking voice agreed.

I jumped up in surprise to find Alex leaning triumphantly against the wall adjacent to our bunks. "What did I tell you about shadow traveling?" I asked.

"That it creeps you out and annoys you," Alex said matter-of-factly.

"So you keep doing it…why?"

"Because it creeps you out and annoys you," Alex laughed, and then tossed me a silver click pen with a blue grip. "You left this over at the climbing wall by the way."

I caught the pen with one hand and shoved it into my pocket. Oh yeah, Miz turns into a handy click pen. The best part of that feature is that when he's a pen, Miz doesn't talk. I sighed again and plopped down onto my bed.

"Before you say it, you know you love me," Alex teased.

"In your dreams Sparky," I countered.

"Sparky?" Alex asked in amused disbelief. "Jake, we need to have a serious talk about comebacks. Honestly, you _suck _at them."

Silence fell over us, but it was the peaceful kind. It was getting kind of late anyway, might as well turn in. Alex bent down to unlace her shoes, and her hair fell in her face. She brushed the hair aside, giving me a better look at her blue eyes. She looked up, giving me a simple smile.

"Oh and, happy birthday," she said.

I think my response went a little something like, "Huh?"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Happy birthday. It _is _your birthday today right?"

"It is?" I asked. "I mean yeah, it is."

Alex laughed, and shook her head. "Hit your head in that fall earlier Smart One?"

Before I could come up with another one of my trademark lame comebacks, there was a knock at the door, snapping Alex and I both out of our little "moment". And by moment, I mean conversation in which I don't get punched.

"Jacob L. Jackson, what did I tell you about locked doors?" a muffled voice scolded form outside the cabin.

"Ohh you're in trouble now," Alex said playfully.

There was no initial response, directed at us at least. I could hear voices on the other side of the door, but they were too muffled to make out exactly. I caught bits like "—back…door…go…"

And then a sword shot out from the door, giving Alex and I a serious shock. In a reflexive reaction, we both drew our weapons. I clicked Miz back to life, and Alex transformed her necklace into a Stygian iron sword with a twirl of the chain. The sword blade retracted from the door and was kicked in. Alex and I stood ready as the door crashed aside to reveal—

_**Everybody liking it so far? I know I am. Muuch better than the original draft for this thing. Alrighty, let's continue with the end of chapter questions. Who broke into the cabin? What's The Pit doing? Was that Jalex moment an isolated incident? What is an isolated incident anyway? Tune in next time to find out!**_

_**Phoenix Chapterly Challenge: What is the title of the sequel to **__**Percy Jackson and the Prison of the Gods?**__** (Submit answer along with a review.)**_

_**Last Chapter Answer-**_

_**1136: I'm 1136! 45x was the evil ninja superhuman who turned out to be the Muffin Man! He also got 002 to cheat on 003…AND I AM NOT YOUR SIDEKICK!**_

_**003: Yes you are.**_


	3. Best Birthday Ever

_**Welcome back one and all to the extremely late sequel to Jacob Jackson and the Sins of the Fathers. Last chapter somebody (we all know who) was breaking in the door the Demigod Cabin the hard way! **_

_**This chapter…more stuff happens. Duh.**_

Jacob's POV

"Mom?" I asked, lowering Miz.

_And there goes any chances of action tonight. _Miz laughed. I can't be one hundred percent sure, but I'm pretty sure the heat in my cheeks meant I blushed.

Mom capped Riptide and handed it back to Dad. I peeked behind them, wondering if Alex's parents were with them. To mine and Alex's relief, they weren't. Dad was carrying a little blue bag with gray decorative tissue coming out Mom stepped in and enveloped me in one of those hugs where all I can see is blonde and I lose the ability to inhale.

"Happy Birthday baby," my Mom said.

"Mom!" I groaned. The last thing I need added to my "cool factor" is my mom calling me baby. I looked to my dad, silently begging him every way I knew how not to further embarrass me in front of my best friend slash roommate slash…whatever else she might become.

"Right sorry," my mom said, realizing she'd called me a name I hadn't liked when I was four. "Happy Birthday son."

"Whatever," I sighed.

"Got you something," Dad offered, holding out a box.

I looked the box over. No way. Either I was seeing things, or that was the box of an iPhone 6g. My jaw dropped slightly as my dad handed it to me. I looked from the box to him and back again.

"No way," I said. "Really?"

Mom and Dad exchanged a glance, and I could tell they were suppressing a laugh, which meant I was in for it.

"Of course not, you're not getting a phone," Dad said, as if it should've been obvious. Mom and Alex both cracked up laughing, and even Dad was sporting a winning smirk. "But we did get you something. Open it up."

I opened the box gingerly, half afraid it was just going to spray whip cream. Sure that would be too immature for Mom, but I would _not _put it past Dad, especially if he'd at all been influenced by Alex. No splatter attacked me as the top opened. But the only thing I could see inside was black insides of the box.

I turned it upside down and shook it, but all that fell out was a little, gleaming coin.

"A drachma…gee, thanks," I said. Not to sound ungrateful, but one little drachma wasn't really what I was hoping for as a birthday present.

"Not a drachma," my mom corrected in a bit of a sing song voice.

"Crush it," Dad instructed.

I looked at the coin in my hand and dubiously squeezed it. The metal seemed to melt at my touch, and a mercury like substance oozed out from between my fingers. It slid across my skin until everything from my fingertips to my elbow was covered in shimmering liquid bronze. The metal shaped itself, retracting from my arm to form a circular shield.

A smile broke out across my face as I removed the shield from my arm to examine it. It was embezzled not with intricate engravings like my dad's shield, but with a simple gray trident design. Around the rim were gray engraved words in ancient Greek. They read: Defense of the defenseless.

"No way…" whispered in awe. I was vaguely aware of the smile on my parents' and Alex's faces. On an autopilot style instinct, I pressed in from the edges of the shield until it collapsed back into a coin.

I looked back up at my parents as I pocketed the coin. "Guys…thanks!" I said as I enveloped them both in a hug, which they gladly returned.

"We need to talk with Chiron over a few things," Dad said as we broke apart. "We'll see you tomorrow morning."

Alex and I both said our goodbyes and watched them walk off to the Big House. But before we could shut the door, something hard and blunt smacked me between the eyes and I went down.

"Happy Birthday loser!" I heard an all too familiar voice laugh.

"Real mature Roxanne!" I shouted, still rubbing my head from the boxing glove javelin. Alex was laughed her head off again. Not one to take defeat sitting down (even though the javelin _had _knocked me onto my butt) I grabbed the javelin and smacked her with the boxing glove end.

She fell flat on her back, and when she got back up she had that it's-on-now look she got during capture the flag or other serious affairs…like DDR. She tackled me to the ground, quickly pinning my arms above my head. I twisted in protest, and using nothing but hips and legs I rolled her off of me.

Before she could get up, I had her arms pinned above her head and her legs immobilized. She briefly tried squirming free before giving up.

"I win," I said with a smirk.

"I let you win," she huffed.

"Sure you did," I chuckled.

Before I could say Yathzee, I was pinned on my back completely immobilized, with Alex on top of me. On top of me…I blushed at the realization of our situation. Alex looked at me quizzically before figuring it out for herself. But rather than get up like any sane person would, she reacted a little differently.

She leaned in to the point where our noses were a centimeter apart, and whispered "Happy Birthday," before getting off of me as fast as possible. I just laid there for a bit staring at the ceiling, thinking "Whoa."

I heard a light chuckle from Alex's bunk. "That was your present Smart One, so don't expect any cash or anything."

My reply was some sort of murmur. Best. Birthday. Ever.

Percy's POV

"Talk with Chiron about something?" Annabeth asked in disbelief. "That's your best lie?"

"It was improvised," I defended. "At least I didn't tell him the truth."

_**Hm. You know, I'm detecting a pattern in chapter length. I'm really sorry about the length, but I can't seem to build up the story's momentum. Once I do, these should be much longer though. Anyway!**_

_**What is the truth Percy and Annabeth are referring to? What are the Pit doing? And most importantly…why is there a cake in front of me that says Happy Anniversary?**_


	4. Evan and His Plans

_**Hey guys. Found out what the cake was for…the hard way.**_

_**002: 003! Get back here!**_

_**Yoink! It's JJATSOOC4 time! I'll leave you geniuses to figure out what that stands for. Anyway, this day we venture into the ugly pit of evil that is…well, The Pit. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to beg my girlfriend for my life.**_

"Let me go!" the boy screamed as he struggled violently against the two massively built members of The Pit. "Let go of me!"

"Shut up!" Evan ordered. "Set him up with the rest," he instructed to the two handling the boy. They nodded, and dragged him off to a group of others.

The group of young half-bloods, about seven strong and none of them older than sixteen, was forced into a line with their backs to the river behind them. Keeping them in line were several gray armored soldiers of The Pit.

"Let's move people," Evan ordered. "I don't need security ghouls breathing down our necks."

This was a legitimate concern, considering The Pit had worked their way into the Underworld and was now situated at the bank of the River Styx. The plan was simple, if not extremely cruel and risky. Dump as many members of the Pit into the Styx as possible, and hope for an invincible army.

An army Evan felt sure would crush any resistance Camp Half-Blood might offer. If just one of the dunkings proved successful, The Pit would have a powerful weapon at their disposal. A much more easily controlled weapon at that.

The only problem was finding volunteers amongst the young, inexperienced, and even cowardly ranks of the Pit. So rather than waste time with that, Evan Nakamura had come up with the time efficient idea of simple tossing people in by force.

"Everybody ready?" Alice, the shape shifting daughter of Artemis asked the seven chosen recruits. There was a ripple of no's, shaken heads, and attempts to get away. Alice responded by kicking the closest recruit into the river herself.

The body splashed in, and everybody there anxiously looked on to see if the poor sap would come out alive. After a minute or so, it was clear he wasn't. Alice simply turned to the remaining six and called out, "Next body!"

Almost sure of her own doom, one little daughter of Athena attempted to run. She was caught by the very same Pit soldier who'd dragged her to the river, and was promptly hurled in.

Similar processes were repeated for the other five. Only three however, managed to make it out of the cursed Styx alive. Evan swore under his breath at the results and ordered everyone to clear out. The survivors of the Styx, Alice, and the other Pit soldiers all began clearing away signs of their having been there, while Evan himself scanned around for any form of Hades' minions. Fortunately for him, there were none.

"All clear," Alice reported once she'd made sure they'd left no trace.

Evan didn't respond, merely stared off into space. His gaze never lessened in intensity however. It constantly maintained the hard glare that stuck on one's face if their childhood involved murdering their own father.

_My father is here somewhere, _Evan thought. _In the Fields of Punishment, rotting like the scum he is. It's too god for him._

Part of him accepted he would likely end up in the Fields as well if he was somehow killed before Olympus could be brought crumbling down. But the rest of him stubbornly refused to believe that anything would be able to kill him.

Not anymore at least. Not if that dream was as half as powerful as it felt…

"Sir?" Alice asked again, trying to get his attention.

Evan snapped out of his trance. "Huh? Right, right. Let's move."

The trip out was only slightly easier than the fight in, but they made it out without making any serious ruckus or losing anybody. A successful mission all in all. So why did Evan still having the feeling something wasn't right. Not that exactly either. More like something was…different now. He'd been getting that feeling more and more. Ever since the dream.

_Evan opened his eyes, but all he could see was black. At first he thought his eyes were still closed. He tried shutting and opening them. A simple blink. And yet the darkness remained. What was worse, he hadn't felt his eyelids open or close. _

_He couldn't feel anything. Not his hands or his feet, not the ground or any other part of his body. He was encased in a cold, black, lifeless void. Everywhere he "looked", there was nothing. Nothing but emptiness and cold oblivion._

_And then, from the darkness emerged a single gray light. A tiny glimmer of light, so small amidst the bleakness Evan almost missed it. _

_But that issue quickly faded as the light grew bigger and brighter and closer and colder. The gray sphere of light hovered in front of him, shimmering just out of reach. Evan groped forward with arms he didn't have._

_That got things excited. The light exploded in a swirl and whirlwind of color and chaos, all the while the chillingly cold sensation it radiated penetrated deeper into Evan's very being. He wanted to cry out, but had no mouth with which to scream._

_Then, slowly, the wild light show began to slow. The chaos of it all slowly gave way to control and order. But not Evan's. It almost seemed like it was Evan's own will which calmed the light, but at the same time he knew it couldn't be. He could never hope to control the light._

_The light re-condensed, this time into a real shape. A silhouette of a man soon stood shimmering before Evan now, an arm extended toward him. Evan wished ever so desperately to reach toward it. He wanted to more than anything. _

_And yet, there was still doubt. Some small nagging voice told Evan it was a bad idea. The light would bring him nothing but trouble. The cold void it seemed to radiate was testament to this. Evan laughed at the voice. What harm could the light possibly do?_

_Evan accepted its chilly embrace. The cold chilled his blood and froze his very soul, it was so powerful. Evan briefly felt as though he possessed a body once more. But not his own, weak, demigod body, but a stronger, invincible, almost god-like body. It was a feeling more empowering than anything else Evan had experienced._

_And unlike the other experiences in this dream, this feeling of strength did not pass quickly. It only grew and intensified, until it numbed all else. And a voice whispered. _

_"Allow me."_

Ever since that dream, Evan hadn't quite felt like himself. He felt more detached. Doing things he didn't remember doing. His reactions to situations seeming more automatic. And, every now and then, he got a weird headache. For some reasons, all these very, _very _bad signs added up to him feeling good, better than himself.

What could possibly go wrong?

_**Two thousand points go to whoever can figure out what or who the light in Evan's dream was. What is the truth Percy and Annabeth want to hide from Jake and friends? What dastardly plan has The Pit cooked up this time? And, can Camp Half-Blood and Olympus really handle this without help? **_

_**By the way, I'm totally sorry this chapter took so long. For some reason I couldn't edit any PJO stories for like a month**_


	5. Jacob Goes Solo

_**1136: Hello everybody. 003 is still recovering from his "lil fight" with 002 (she broke both his arms), so I'm in charge around here for now. While you quake in fear of that statement, here's the next chapter.**_

Jacob's POV

We may be at war and everything, but let's face the facts. Our parents had handled the only real activity we'd gotten in weeks. It was a slow time by anybody's standards. So when Chiron offered me quick quest to deal with some sort of monster trouble in Manhattan, I jumped at the chance. I wanted Alex and Henry to come along, but both were busy.

By busy, I mean Henry was most likely at the bottom of the canoe lake and Alex was off on her own solo quest to some dangerous place she wouldn't say the name of. The only reason I knew it was dangerous was because she bothered to take the armor I'd (painstakingly) made her last year.

Two years. It'd been two years since I'd first come to Camp Half-Blood. And of course, two years since the start of the Pit-Olympus War. And the worst part is it wasn't clear exactly who was winning. The Pit kept pulling out all these fantastic schemes, and we always foiled them in some daring and heroic quest that usually involved an explosion of some kind. And yet…there was always a lingering feeling that all these defeats didn't bother the Pit even a little bit.

I could've gotten Argus to drive me into the city, but he was also busy. Something about an strawberry delivery accident. So instead, I was going to the city in style. That is, riding the ever faithful pegasus Blackjack. I'd always loved riding pegasai, mostly because it was the closest I was ever allowed to get to flying. There was just one, _tiny _problem I had with riding Blackjack.

_Hey Junior! Ready to fly?_

"Hey Blackjack," I greeted as I climbed up onto his back. "Don't call me Junior please."

_Got it Junior!_

I let out an exasperated sigh. This could turn into a looong flight.

The flight was in fact bearable, but only because I avoided talk with Blackjack as much as possible and made sure Miz stayed in pen form the entire time. As we approached the city, I saw lots of little tiny ants (People. We were pretty high up.) scurrying across the ground all in the same direction, which meant they were all running from something.

Like any normal person, I flew straight for whatever it was that was terrifying the masses. As a precautionary matter, I clicked Miz into a full fledge sword.

_Whew! Good to be back! So, what are we up against this time kid? _Miz asked as we flew, losing altitude as Blackjack came down at a shallow angle.

"Don't know yet," I said. "But judging by the number of people running, it can't be that bad."

_Or it killed everyone else and the people you see are all that's left._

"Shut it Miz," I replied.

_Junior…who you talkin you?_

"No one Blackjack," I said with a sigh. "No one."

_I take offense to that._ Miz put in.

"I don't care," I retorted.

Within moments we were flying only about twenty feet above the streets. Close enough to see the panicked faces of the people running, and close enough to hear somebody scream, "Don't look directly at it!"

"I am not liking the sound of that," I mumbled, more to myself than Miz or Blackjack.

Most of the screams and exclamations we heard were the common things like "Run for your lives!" and "Oh my god!". But every now and again, there was a useful scream like "She'll turn you to stone!" and "Don't look back!" I had a pretty good idea of what we were going up against by then. And I was really wishing I'd brought along back up right about then.

But, now was not the time to think about how useful Henry could've been in the way of a human shield. Now was the time to jump off the back of a speeding Pegasus and tumbled end over end across the pavement until the friction of your clothes tearing up against the pavement slowed you to a stop.

_You alright Junior?_ Blackjack asked once I was done with my skid.

"Not my most graceful landing," I admitted. "But no real injuries. Head on back Blackjack. I'll handle things from here."

_Take care of yourself Junior! _And then the black Pegasus was gone, leaving me alone with my talking sword, the fleeing citizens of Manhattan, and literally the ugliest thing in existence. If that's not a sure sign of a good time, I don't know what is.

"As long as I'm fighting one of the most famous monsters in mythology, I might as well be historically accurate," I commented as my free hand reached into my pocket and dug out the coin I'd gotten for my birthday. Crushing it in my hands, the shield quickly formed into its functional state. Just one final touch was missing to get me ready for combat.

During my early days at Camp Half-Blood, I'd enjoyed every minute of it. Except for the big, bulky armor we had to wear. So, as soon as possible, I designed (and with help from the Hephaestus kids, built) my own, personal, _magic_ armor.

With a thought, my shirt got thicker, tighter, and heavier. A few seconds later, it had morphed into my specially designed, form fitting flexible armor, modeled in the style of original Greek battle armor, right down to the exaggerated muscles on the torso.

Not exactly traditional, but more practical by far. If Chiron had a problem with it, he didn't voice it. Mom was proud of me for designing it, Dad wanted me to make some armor like it for him, and Alex said it looked good on me, so I used it.

Shield, sword, and armor all transformed, I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

"Ready to kill the ultimate snake lady Miz?" I asked.

_Can we keep her head? _Miz asked cheerfully.

"We'll see," I told him.

I continued my approach on foot, carefully intent on listening for the slightest sign I was getting dangerously close to my monster prey. Despite my apparent awareness, I was suddenly ambushed with the sensation of something big, cold, and scaly crashing into my back and pinning me to the street. I squeezed my eyes shut as I was rolled onto my back and felt tiny droplets of snake spit hit my face.

"Jackson!" the monster hissed in rage.

I had a feeling if I didn't look soon, Medusa would get impatient and just tear me to ribbons with those bronze talons she keeps handy. Which as we all know, wouldn't be very fun. But she had my arms pinned, and she was way too heavy to kick off.

I struggled as hard as I could, but Medusa wouldn't budge.

_**003: Oww….**_

_**1136: Oh the irony. So, will Jacob survive his fight with Medusa? What is Alex's secret mission? What are Percy and Annabeth up to, and for that matter, what about Thalia and Nico? Tune in next time to find out!**_

_**002: 003!**_

_**003: Dear lord.**_


	6. Alex Does Her Thing

Alex's POV

My hands struggled to keep a grip on the rocky stalactites at the high rising ceiling of the cave. Let me explain this as simply as I can for you: The Pit had been too quiet for too long, which in my experience meant they were planning something big. The last thing we needed was a repeat of the Golden Gate Bridge incident, so I'd asked Chiron to let me lead a quick spy mission into the Pit's not-so-secret base.

Unfortunately…that hadn't worked out too well. I was ignoring him for the most part, but I caught little bits of what Chiron was saying to me. Something about too dangerous and not enough campers available for a quest like that. He shouldn't have said the too dangerous part, because I always take that as a challenge.

And so, against Chiron's orders, I'd shadow traveled smack into the Pit's underground hideout without back-up to see what was up. Not long after that, I found myself climbing on the ceiling with blood rushing to my head and adrenaline pulsing through my veins. All I need was a couple shots of nectar, but that would've been pushing it.

As it was, I was having a hard time in the stealth department. Being only twenty feet above your targets with no cover other than self-manipulated shadow. And in case you forgot, shadows don't in any way, not even a little, diminish sound. In fact, sounds _echo _in caves.

I suppose all my efforts _might _have been worth it, but after a few hours of clambering around I hadn't seen any big players in the Pit, or figured out what they were planning, other than apparently, Evan and a decent sized group had gone off on some secret mission.

There was one other thing I wanted to check out before I left though. I'd kept hearing about it in hushed tones and whispers, heard the rumors, and bit by bit I'd come to understand just where my eventual destination was.

I crept along the ceiling, headed for the most dangerous and guarded part of the cave. Sure enough, within a few moments, I was hanging suspended above two guards outside the entrance to the holding cell of Urunos.

Only two. I dropped down with as much stealth as my aching, climbing fatigued body would allow right behind them. With one roundhouse kick to the back of the neck knocked one down, and my hands clamped around the other's face before he could react.

He kicked and muffled cries for help vibrated against my palm, but I had him, and no air was getting to him. After a few seconds, he passed out. I set him down as gently as I could so he wouldn't wake up, and dragged both him and his buddy out of sight.

With the guards taken care of, I returned to the thickest metal door I'd ever seen. It was locked up tight with Celestial bronze chains and a padlock to match. But locks haven't had much chance at stopping me in the past, and I wasn't about to let the Pit break my streak.

I took the necklace that had been with me since before I can remember. A quick twirl and it could transform into a sword. Leave it the way it is, and it makes a pretty handy lockpick. I knelt down and got to work.

Half an hour later, I was starting to sweat from the stuffy cave air and I'd gotten nowhere. I'd even had to take a quick break to knock the guards back into unconsciousness. With any luck, they'd have a nasty headache when they eventually woke up, courtesy of me.

I groaned in frustration and pulled out my improvised lockpick. I slid the necklace off my neck and gave the chain a quick twirl. It elongated and snapped into sword form, three feet of Stgyian iron death. The reason locks haven't had much chance at stopping me is simple. If I can't pick it the old fashioned way, I cheat.

I closed my eyes, let out a deep breath, and felt electricity crackle through me and arc across the blade of the sword. With one swipe, I sliced the padlock in half, and it clattered to the floor in two pieces. My sword shrank back into necklace form, and I slid it back on. Reaching down, I tossed the chains aside.

Before I could open the door to see what was inside though, the spine chilling sound of a door behind me opening reached my ears. I spun around, searching for a shadow big enough to escape through. But only now did it occur to me that whoever had set up this cave had been smart.

Unlike other areas of the base, the rocks and placement of torches were such that there was no shadow big enough to shadow travel through. No really big rocks to hide behind. And nowhere to run. On a reflexive reaction to certain death situations, my necklace was a sword once again.

I'm not sure who I was expecting to walk in, but I was not expecting Evan Nakamura, the one-eyed, metal-armed, sword swinging leader of the Pit. Training since birth has made him a dangerous swordsman, and the Celestial bronze hand that replaced the one he'd lost in a fight had all kinds of nasty surprises in it.

Top that off with me being alone and my only avenue of escaped blocked off, and this was looking to be a very interesting way to die.

"Alex…" Evan said in a level but surprised tone. "If I'd known you were coming I wouldn't have given our executioner the day off."

"Oh, darn," I said. "Guess I'll have to come back another day."

"Hold on now," Evan insisted. "I'm sure I can handle it myself."

"There's really no need to go to all that trouble just for little old me…" I tried, slowly backing away.

"Don't be ridiculous," Evan said cordially. "I mean, we _are _enemies."

"Well…since we're enemies…"

I leapt forward, hoping to take Evan by surprise. Our sword clanged together and I rolled to the side, coming back up just in time to block a strike from Evan. I hefted back to my feet and the fight really got started.

Our swords were blurred as our lethal dance—Evan was leading— carried us around the small cave. I ducked under a swing and parried two more before having to side step a lunge. As he recovered from the lunge I gave him a hard elbow to the face and hilt-slammed his wrist hard enough to make him drop his weapon.

While Evan recovered from my attack, I made a beeline for the exit. If he didn't recover fast enough, there was a chance I could escape without even getting a scratch.

And that's where everything went to visit my grandfather. One second I was running, and the next second I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet. In a startled moment I realized that was because I was _floating above it_.

I spun—still in midair—to see Evan with an outstretch hand and his eyes glassed over in an eerie reddish gray. When his voice came out, it was like two different people talking in unison.

"Big mistake…"

I went from lighter than air to being pressed so hard against the cave wall that I could feel my ribs beginning to crack.

"Tell me child, what did you hope to accomplish by coming here?" Evan asked in his possessed voice. "Nakamura has no plans. _I am his plans_. And now, I'll be putting into action plans of my own."

"Urunos…" I realized all too late. This was starting to remind me way to much of that scary story Uncle Percy would tell me about the Son of Hermes.

"In a matter of sense," Urunos/Evan admitted. "Nakamura still lives, I admit this as well. Which is why I'm going to give you a bit more of a…theatrical death."

The invisible force that threatened to flatten me to a pancake receded, and I dropped to the floor panting for breath. A blonder haired girl with grey eyes and battle armor to match walked confidently into the cave, followed by a boy wearing a ash colored robes and dark hair falling in front of his face and a figure wearing so much battle armor I couldn't make out any physical features.

"Alex di Angelo, welcome to the literal fight of your life," Evan/Urunos said, "against my Achilles Heels."

I raised my sword as the three of them moved in. They all looked younger than me, except the one covered in battle armor, but they looked like they could all do some damage in a fight.

"One more thing," Urunos added. "If you want something done right…"

He clasped the blonde girl on the shoulder, and she gasped in pain. She fell to her knees and the same reddish gray glow came from her eyes. A moment later, she took in a deep breath and rose to her feet with the same eerie glow to her eyes Even had.

In unison, they finished the sentence, "do it yourself."

_**Yep. Urunos can possess MULTIPLE PEOPLE AT ONCE. Today is a scary, scary day my friends. This story is officially kicking into high gear. So buckle up, or run the risk of flying out the windshield and dying in the event of an accident. This car safety PSA was brought to you by Trix.**_

_**Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!**_


	7. Medusa Meets Her Match

_**Alright, the last two chapters put our two big heroes both in what absolutely should be their last fight, but then, why would I kill off the cover guy before the final book? Of course, everyone else is still up for debate. Not even that talking sword is safe…**_

Jacob's POV

I struggled in vain against the weight and strength of Medusa, but it was utterly pointless. I slackened my neck and let my head hit the street, hard. Too hard in fact. I rolled my head from side to side, quickly figuring out my head was resting not on pavement, but on a manhole cover.

Eyes still squeezed shut and Medusa still on top of me, I gave a frantic attempt at getting sewage water to obey my will. The manhole cover rumbled slightly for a half a second, and then both me and Medusa were catapulted into the air by a geyser of sewer water.

I hit the pavement hard enough to disorient myself, but at least I didn't have a monster sitting on me contemplating the best way to kill me. As the stench of "used" water filled my nostrils, I felt my stomach involuntarily constrict and suddenly I was vomiting all over the street. I let go of Miz and felt my shield slide off my arm as I let my stomach empty its contents.

I thought that was it, but just before I could grab my weapon and shield, my stomach decided it wasn't quite done after all and gave another heave. I said hi to my lunch once again, and the smells of vomit and full toilet mixed into a wonderful aroma that filled my nostrils to the brim.

I opened my eyes and searched around my immediate area for my gear, finding my shield easily enough. Miz was buried ever so slightly in the muck nearby, and I was honestly tempted to just leave him there. But, fighting without a sword isn't a good idea, so I gingerly removed my sword from the water that wasn't a good color.

_Well…that couldn't have been more disgusting. _Miz complained.

"Hey, at least you can't smell it," I told him, getting back up.

I rose back up to my feet, extremely grateful my powers protected me from getting wet. It made it a lot easier to get back to the matters at hand. As I scanned around a full three-hundred and sixty degrees around, I couldn't see where Medusa had gone.

I felt a thud against pavement travel through the street, coming from behind me. I spun sword drawn, heard a girlish shriek, and a voice hiss, "Careful Jackson. Another swing like that, and I might be forced to break her neck."

"What?" I asked confused and with my eyes still closed.

"Take a peek and find out," she taunted.

There was a muffled scream before a girl's voice gasped for air and shouted, "No!"

That really tempted me to open my eyes. Who was making that girl? But before I could decide what to do, there was another scream and Medusa's full weight crushed against me. My sword and shield went flying out of my grasp, and I fell to the ground.

Medusa's claw scratched against my armor, leaving a deep gash but not reaching flesh. I grabbed that wrist before she could pull it back. I gave the best punch to the face I could muster, and Medusa let out a hiss of anger.

I felt talon stab into my leg and cursed, but managed to grab that wrist too. Medusa struggled and cursed my name, trying to break my grip. But I was just as determined not to let her use those talons again.

_Hang on kid! I'm coming! _Miz assured.

I was about to remind him he was an inanimate object, but Medusa let out a cry of pain and something plopped down on my face with a splat before rolling off to the side. A female voice gave a grunt of effort, and something struck my armor.

_Safe to look now, Smart One. Hurry up before this mortal accidentally cuts your head off._

My eyes opened just in time to see my own sword being brought down straight at my face. My hands shot out, and I caught the sword between my palms just before it could hit. Holding my trusty talking weapon was a terrified mortal girl with her eyes squeezed shut. When she couldn't pull back the sword easily, she gave a hard tug, trying to yank it from my grasp.

"Hey, hey!" I shouted, getting her attention. She stopped pulling, and her eyes went from tightly squeezed to lightly shut.

"Take it easy," I said softly, trying to calm her down. "Just stay calm. Open your eyes."

Her eyelids slowly peeked open, as if she was still unsure whether looking at me would turn her to stone. She blinked, looking directly at me with her green eyes as if looking for something. Her head tilted slightly to one side, like she was curious or she was thinking. I briefly wondered if I had something in my teeth, but she cut my guessing short when she said, "It's you."

"Right, it's me," I said, not sure what she was saying. I have a near perfect memory, and while the brown-haired girl standing was striking me as familiar, I could say without any doubt I hadn't seen her in a while. Besides, the world had a lot of green-eyed brunettes, and I'd been on the receiving end of their thrown rocks several times for a variety of demigod hating reasons.

"No, it's you, the boy from my old school," she said, as if that was supposed to explain everything. "You saved me that day the Minotaur attacked."

That last statement however, was all my brain needed. "Rae," I said, giving her name with perfect recall. Her eyes widened just a little in surprise.

"You remember my name?" she asked. "But how—"

"I have a good memory," I interrupted. "And, that's one day I remember with perfect clarity."

How could I have forgotten? The trembling in the ground I felt just before the Minotaur had burst in, turning every piece of furniture that got in his way to splinters. The day when I'd met Miz, learned I was a demigod, and came to camp. And, now that I called that particular memory up, I remembered Rae too.

Trapped under a fallen bookcase, trying to escape before she got killed in the crossfire between me and the Minotaur. She'd been struggling with everything she'd had, but I knew she'd never get herself free. It was three years ago, but I remembered it all so clearly. At ten years old I was fighting monsters and saving innocents. Now I'm thirteen, and I've fought a monster and been saved _by _an innocent.

"I guess we're even now," I said, which got a raised eyebrow in response.

"I saved you, you saved me," I clarified.

"Oh, right," she said. She glanced down at the sword in her hand and, in an embarrassed tone, said, "Um, this is yours."

I took Miz from her and shrank him down to a pen before pocketing him. "Thanks"

"Well, I'd better get going," I said, turning to leave. I got about to steps when she asked me, "Where you headed?"

I stopped, turned, and told her. "Home."

"You mean the training camp that used to sell those strawberries?" she asked.

"We still sell those," I said. "But nobody buys them anymore. Mortals have…thing against us."

"Well…I'm a mortal," she said, taking a few steps closer, "and I don't have anything against you."

"You sure?" I asked, suspicious more than anything else. "You're looking at the kid who sank the Golden Gate Bridge. 'For no logical reason'." I quoted the news reporter to emphasize my utter frustration over the event.

"Other than it was the quickest way to kill that sea monster which would've destroyed the entire city, you mean?" she asked. I recognized that quote too, but it wasn't from the Burt Williams show.

"Some mortals like to hear the demigod side of the story too," she said. "And besides, Half-Blood TV is part of basic cable."

"A mortal that doesn't hate me," I said, "now there's something new."

"How could anyone hate you? You're a hero," she protested.

As if to prove her wrong, someone got brave enough to come out of their hiding spot, spotted me and Rae, and started shouting like a maniac.

"Get away from her you freak!" he shouted. He charged forward, fists clenched. He probably felt like a big hero, going to save a girl from a half-human freak of nature that could do no good. I sidestepped his charge and tripped him with a leg sweep.

All I can say is, big mistake.

"Hey freakshow!" someone else cursed. "You like beating up humans? You think just because you're different you can push us around?"

Well, if that wasn't hypocritical, I don't know what is.

"Cut it out!" Rae defended. "He tries to help you people and _this _is how you repay him?"

"Rae, don't," I warned, but it was too late. The angry mob was already forming.

"She's defending him!" someone said.

"Traitor!" another accused.

A crowd was gathering, and Rae and I were suddenly boxed in on all sides by some very angry, very hurt, very biased mortals with attitude.

"My cousin died on the bridge _you _sank hero!"

"You'll face charges from the New York Times for what you did to our office!"

"My children can't go to school anymore, because it was destroyed by _you_!"

The sea of complaints, accusations, insults, and the like flooded me. Some people who were close enough spat. Others threw shoes. And I just stood there and took it, because the last thing I needed was for me to defend myself and be labeled a menace again.

_**Would anyone believe me if I said this whole Rae/Jacob thing couldn't possibly go anywhere? I mean sure, she's cute, she's the only mortal who's ever looked past the fact that he's not human, and the preview left some tantalizing hints but hey, no big. I am evil, aren't I?**_


	8. Urunos Loses His Touch

I gave my sword a test twist, the weapon emitting no gleam under the torchlight. The one with the robe took a half step back, the armored one froze, but the girl Urunos had possessed continued her/his/their slow advance. My gaze shifted from her to each of her two friends, then back to her. They had all begun to close in again. My eyes darted around, but my only avenue of escape was through these three, and I still couldn't see a shadow big enough to escape from.

If Jacob were here he would have analyzed the whole situation and devised some ingenious, fool proof way to get out of this, but I'm not Jacob. So instead, I dug my heels in and got ready for a fight. I took a slow step to the left, and they all took a step closer. I took a step back, feeling my back now literally against the wall. The three moved closer still.

Putting as much power as I could, I jumped up, and then kicked off the wall behind me. I flew straight over the girl Urunos had control of, landed in a crouch behind all of them, and spun with my sword swinging.

The girl blocked with her own weapon, and within seconds it became a full-fledged sword fight. Her eyes still burned with the red and gray glow of Urunos, but she hadn't pulled any god-power tricks just yet. The other two were staying out of it, but the one in heavy battle armor had moved to stand in the way of the exit, which meant no matter what I was going to be fighting my way out.

I ducked underneath a sword swing and rolled away from her, trying to make sure she didn't box me in. The boy with the robe drew a knife and stood ready to intercept me, but he was kidding himself. I stood up, grabbed his wrist, and hilt-slammed the weapon out of his hand.

The knife clattered to the ground, I kicked him free, and swung my sword at his face. But instead of putting him down for the count, the blade scratched across the surface of his cheek and did nothing. I froze up for a second in surprise, because _that wasn't supposed to happen._

He smirked like he'd just won the lottery, stretched out his hand, and suddenly a wall of wind knocked me flat to the ground. I mentally slapped myself as I rolled to avoid a stab from Urunos's new host. Achilles Heels. How could I not have seen this coming?

I was up against three invincible super baddies, and one of them was being possessed by a god to boot. Where is Jacob when you need him? I kicked the girl backward and jumped back onto my feet, only for a gust of wind to send me flying into the armored chest of the third one.

The most painful bear hug I'd ever experienced crushed the air out of my lungs and made me drop my sword. There was a grunt of effort as he—it was a he, I could tell now that I was this close—squeezed harder, trying to crush the life out of me.

I couldn't just bash my way through this like usual, not when all my power and skill was useless against the invincible. I had to think, figure a way out of this, and preferably fast before my ribs were flattened.

What was I up against? Blonde hair, her eyes had been gray before Urunos moved in. Daughter of Athena, knows how to use that sword. Assuming she can do everything a Urunos-possessed Evan can, she's the biggest threat.

Robes, uses a knife, not very good with it, and power over the wind. He was probably a child of Aeolus with little combat experience. He was the smallest threat, but a real threat all the same.

And then of course there's the hunk of armor trying to snap me in half. In terms of threat level he was in the middle, but he was still the most _immediate_ threat. His grip tightened even more. Gods, how could Jacob possibly find time to think at times like these?

I tried to cry out, but the scream got stuck in my throat. The Urunos possessed chick stepped forward, sword in hand.

"They just don't make heroes like they used to," the twin voices chuckled darkly. She drew the sword back, aiming for my throat.

I had to focus. Spots danced in front of my eyes as I felt the familiar feeling of my powers. Black tendrils of electricity sparked across both of us, although they only had an effect on one of us. The towering hunk of armor staggered back, losing his grip and giving me just enough time to dodge the sword thrust that would have opened my throat.

I kicked the girl into the cave wall and sprinted for the exit, but once again I felt the pull of some unnatural force dragging me back into the jaws of death. I turned to face whatever it was that was sucking me back in, and saw an empty black void that seemed to tear open the air in front of the daughter of Athena. Her eyes glowed even more brightly, and the red aura now fully surrounded her.

Whatever that void was, it was pulling me in. I tried to dig in and resist its tug, but all I ended up doing was falling flat on my face and getting pulled at an even faster speed. In a desperate attempt to save myself, an arc of black lightning flew out and struck Urunos's new host dead in the chest, but she barely staggered in reaction.

"This is sooo not fair!" I complained as the pull wrenched me off the ground and pulled me through the air straight toward it. I didn't know what would happen if I went through that void, but I never got the chance to find out.

It disappear right before I hit it and instead I flew into the waiting arms of a certain glowing daughter of Athena. Her hands clenched around my shoulders so tightly her knuckles turned white. Then, in a voice that was completely Urunos's, she said, "Welcome to the Pit, di Angelo."

I felt a horrible feeling deep inside my chest like something was trying to push its way into my heart and soul. I staggered away from the girl in utter terror, remembering how she'd been possessed before my own eyes.

No, no I couldn't let that happen. I resisted, even as I fell to my knees and all my senses went numb. A voice, angry and commanding screamed in my head loud enough to drown out my own thoughts. _Submit! Submit!_ It seemed to keep repeating that same word over and over and over. Each time it sounded louder, more horrible, making me want to just give in and end the terror.

I vaguely became aware that I was trying to crawl away from the Achilles Heels, still tryin to reach the exit to this shadow-free cavern. _Don't_ _give up_, I pleaded with myself. _Don't let him win…_I could feel the icy feeling of losing control enter my limbs, working its way to my core.

_Please, _I mentally begged, _don't…_

It didn't matter. Urunos had already won, and I could feel my hold over my own body slipping away more and more with each passing second.

_Please…_

Then it hit me like a bag of bricks. I am Alex di Angelo. And I. Do not. Beg!

The icy presence of Urunos was still present in my limbs and body, but now it was facing firm resistance from my own fiery determination, my simple stubbornness that would not give up control this easily. Then, all of a sudden, a psychotic battle cry roared from my lips and that burning feeling of resistance seemed to explode outward, and the cold feeling of Urunos was gone entirely.

All at once my body was mine again, completely and one-hundred percent mine. I could feel it. I came back to my senses, and realized that at some point in that whole ordeal I'd stood up. I think it was then I remembered to breath. I was panting, and I felt exhausted.

Then I saw the look on the Urunos's borrowed face. It didn't look like he'd expected me to still be in control. The other two, the son of Aeolus and the boy covered head to toe in armor were charging forward, shouting not to let me escape.

Escape? Then I looked down, and realized the ground I was standing on was obscured in shadow. Plenty of shadow. With the most satisfied and smug look I could possibly have, I melted down into it. I didn't care where I was going. Anywhere was better than there.

Then I stumbled into a forest filled hellhounds and people in full battle armor, and decided I might want to seriously reconsider that.

_**Whew! That was close, Alex almost ended up possessed and converted to the dark side! How is Jacob doing with his new friends? Where is Alex now? And has she truly broken Urunos's control? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	9. Rae's Date in the Sewers

_**If you'll kindly notice how far apart this and the previous chapter was. Eh? Eh? EH? Maybe I'm back, maybe I'm not. We will see, won't we?**_

_**On a completely unrelated topic, does anyone have 2.5 grand lying around?**_

"We need to get out of here," Rae said over the shouts and insults of the crowd.

I ducked to avoid a rock, and it ended up hitting Rae in the side of the leg. She grabbed the spot in pain, and something else hit her back. I was taking a pretty bad beating too. The crowd only got bolder and more violent as they began to realize I wasn't going to kill them all on the spot.

I searched around for a route out, but we were completely encircled. There was no way we would ever to be able to push through the crowd, and even if I somehow made the jump over them, Rae never would, and I wasn't about to abandon her to be a victim of crimes of hate.

Then my eyes rested on our sole alternative. The manhole cover I'd blown open hadn't been shut yet, and now right there in the street was a quick access into the sewer. Was escape worth it? I only briefly considered the question, because a second later I heard police sirens wail. That definitely made up my mind.

"You're not gonna like it," I warned, grabbing her wrist and pulling her with me.

"Any where's better than here," she said, still trying to shield herself.

I shoved her down into the sewers before she had time to complain, and then jumped in after her. I landed with a very sickening splash in the shallow muck, my feet hitting solid ground first before my knees caved and I ended up on all fours in sewage.

When I looked to my left, I saw Rae hadn't fared much better, she was sitting in the stuff, her hands covered in it. She shook some of the excess off, and stood up. Her jeans were soaked on and around the butt, her sneakers were wet and her hair was a mess. And was that blood running down her forehead?

I could still hear the sounds of the crowd above breaking up and cursing, but at least they weren't chasing after us.

"You okay?" I asked, standing up and offering a hand to help her up.

She took it gingerly, and I hauled her to her feet. "Yeah, I'm fine. Ow. Next time, just…you know, warn me. Oh, gosh my head hurts."

"Here, let me take a look," I said, stepping closer.

"It's nothing," she insisted.

She took a step backward, away from the light that came down from the still open manhole. Of course, she also ended up slipping and splashing into the sewage all over again. I groaned and pulled her back up to her feet and back into the light.

"You're cut and we're in a sewer," I reminded her flatly. "Do you want an infection?"

She gave in, letting me look. I had to admit I was a bit surprised she gave in. Mos girls I knew would've continued to insist they were fine until _I _eventually gave up. But then, most girls I knew were half-bloods trained to fight and the girl I had the most experience with was easily the most stubborn willed person on the planet. I stepped closer to get a better look, brushing some of her hair out of the way. She had a cut on her forehead for sure alright. It wasn't big, but head injuries bleed a lot.

My armor started to feel looser, lighter, and before I knew it I was standing in my normal clothes again. I tore off one sleeve and quickly made a halfway decent bandage out of it, wrapping it around her head and at least dressing the wound.

"That'll have to do for now," I said. "I'll get it cleaned up once we get out of here."

"Thanks," she said in a small voice, her eyes lingering on my mouth. It registered to me then how close our faces were to each other.

I took a step away, feeling uncomfortable. "Alright, let's find a way out of here, preferably one _away_ from any angry mobs."

"I hear you," she agreed, her voice returning to normal level.

We ventured into the sewers, but very quickly it became apparent visibility was going to be an issue. Hesitantly, and knowing in my gut I was going to regret it very soon, I took Miz out of my pocket and clicked him to life. The Celestial bronze sword cast hardly any glow, but it was better than nothing.

"Stay close, you don't want to get lost," I warned, as if I knew the sewers like the back of my hand.

"Stay close," she repeated. "Right."

She did stay close. _Very _close. Don't even get me started on all of Miz's remarks. I swore, if he called me "cheater", "Casanova", or "player" one more time I would be very, very upset. Very.

"Ugh, my pants still haven't dried," she complained after a while.

"Where's it wet?" I asked as we sloshed forward.

"Um…my…rear end," she said awkwardly.

"Oh," I said, flustered. That made my idea of using my powers to dry her off…complicated. "I think I can fix that problem."

"How?" she asked skeptically.

Using only the light from Miz as a guide, I stepped closer and reached behind her. I didn't want to touch anything I wasn't supposed to, so my hand ended up resting just below, at the base of the damp spot on her pants. Her leg tensed the second my hand touched, and I felt my face heat up.

_Jacob! _Miz scolded. _Didn't you're mother ever teach you to keep your hands to yourself?_

"Shut it Miz," I thought back.

He just chuckled. _Can you spell awkward? I wouldn't think so, what with your brain being all scrambled. Not your fault, hormones._

I found myself trying to spell awkward in my head as Rae's clothes became completely dry thanks to my er-, magic touch. Her hands went to the seat of her pants in shock.

"No way," she said in amazement. "Well, you're just full of solutions today."

"I try my best," I joked, relieved to pull my hand away. We continued on.

At some point I ended up walking faster than her, and suddenly I became aware there was no body heat radiating from next to me.

"Rae?" I called out.

"Back here," she answered. "Wait up!"

"Don't move, I'll come to you," I instructed, following the sound of her voice.

"Not moving," she assured. "Not moving at—, oh something just touched my leg. Ohh , what was that?"

"Calm down, it's probably nothing," I told her, finally finding her in the sewers. Almost without thinking, I reached out and grabbed her hand. "Hold on, and don't get lost this time."

She nodded her understanding back, although she was still searching left and right, hell bent that _something_, who knows what, but _something _had touched her leg. She wouldn't stop talking about it. And then of course she nearly broke my hand squeezing every time she thought she felt something touch her.

It was getting on my nerves, and my hand was going numb from lack of circulation. Any tighter of a grip and Rae would start breaking bones.

"It's nothing," I repeated for the millionth time.

"There's something in here I swear," she persisted. What was with her?

I was about to tell her it was just the sewer getting to her when I felt it too. The cold, scaly rope sliding past my ankle. But the thing was, ropes didn't move on their own. Suddenly, the sewer water we were sloshing through didn't feel safe at all, and not just because there might be a snake in it.

I didn't have to say his name, he was already there, somewhere in the darkness. I could almost feel him closing in on me now.

"Jake?" Rae's worried voice prodded, snapping me back to reality. "Jake, I think I found a way out."

And she had, a nice ladder that could take us out of this sewer hole and, more importantly, away from the presence that I now felt sure was in the sewers. She started up the ladder, reaching the top and pushing the cover aside before climbing up and out.

I just barely managed to put my foot on the first wrung when the sewer water seemed to reach out, grab me, and pull me under. I don't even think I had time to scream or swing a sword.

_**Another day, another chapter, another dime, another bullet. Which I can use for more…lucrative purposes. *evil smile* Review or face my cost effective wrath.**_


	10. Hellhounds Lose Their Lunch

_**Three days, three chapters. Is anyone detecting a pattern? I should hope so, because there is one. What was that thing I stopped doing because school was getting in the way? It was something a lot of people liked. What was it…**_

_**On a different note, let's take this quick break from Jacob's latest set back and see what Alex got herself into.**_

This was just what I needed, another fight. I ducked behind a tree as swords clanged and monsters roared. I peeked out from behind the tree to watch a woman stab a charging hellhound in the gut with a spear. At first I didn't have a clue who she was until she spun to kill another one and I caught a glimpse of her shield. It had a few minor dents and dings in it, but the main detail that caught my eye was that it had the face of medusa burned into it.

And through the battle armor, I recognized the woman. My opinion on who she was only reinforced when a man in black armor and a Stygian iron sword seemed to materialize out of a nearby shadow and land behind her in time to kill a third hellhound.

Mom and Dad were fighting a pack of very angry demon puppies. That solved the who, but I still needed the where. All I had to go on was woods. Lots and lots of woods that went on further than I could see.

"Percy and Annabeth are gone," my dad warned as he kicked a hellhound aside.

"Gone?" Mom asked annoyed. "Where did they 'go'? We're in the middle of a fight!"

"They caught up with Brian further ahead," he explained. "Wanted to make sure he wouldn't get away this time."

"And left us with these," Mom said, and zapped a hellhound into monster dust. "Terrific."

Brian? Brian son of Hephaestus Brian? Brian who Jacob had been trying to kill for three years now for what he did Brian? What was he doing…wherever it was we were? I had to check this out, and Jacob would want me to. Well in actuality he would want to storm over to Brian and put a sword in him himself, but Jacob wasn't here.

I was about to move when I realized I didn't know where Brian was. Dad had said further ahead, but which direction was further ahead? Without specifics I could just end up wandering this forest for hours, which would be boring more than anything else.

More hellhounds died at the hands of my parents, and as their numbers dwindled I was content to just stay behind the tree out of sight, and rest. The last hellhound fell, and things got quiet except for the tired panting of my parents. That was when my stomach rumbled, and I remembered I hadn't eaten breakfast this morning. Most important meal of the day, and I forgot.

"You hear that?" my dad said quietly.

"Maybe we missed one?" my mom guessed.

"Behind the tree," my dad said, locating the sound as my stomach growled again.

After what had happened last time, Mom and Dad had specifically forbidden my sneaking out of camp to go on some quest, (Get kidnapped by the Pit _one time _and suddenly they don't let you go on unauthorized quests.) and the punishment this latest venture was going to be brutal if I got caught.

I just wasn't doing very well in the stealth department today.

"You go left, I've got right," Mom said.

I could hear their light footfalls as they slowly crept around. I needed a place to hide and fast. I looked up, and thought maybe, just maybe I could pull off a jump up into the branches above. It was worth a shot.

My legs coiled like springs and I shot up. My hands each found a good branch to hold on, and I managed to pull myself up just as my parents round the trunk of my hiding place.

"Nothing," my dad said. "Must've run off."

"C'mon, we need to catch up with Annabeth and Percy," my mom reminded him.

Dad nodded, "Yeah, let's go. Though I doubt they're still fighting Brian, he's just one kid."

They took off, giving me the direction I needed. I looked at the nearest branch of the next tree over. It looked big enough to hold me, and it was within reach, so I took a leap of faith. I caught the branch, hauled myself up, and repeated the process again and again trying to keep up with my parents, or at the very least not lose track of them.

It wasn't long before the sounds of another fight reached my ears…over my own exhausted breath. Sneaking around a cave, fighting the invulnerable, chasing your parents through a forest, all on an empty stomach was all making me very, very tired.

But when my parents stopped moving and stood I shock, I had to peek through the branches and leaves to see what was so shocking. There in a small clearing was Brian, his eyes blazing red and gray and his whole body with a similar glow to it. Aunt Annabeth and Uncle Percy were suspended in midair, and Brian was laughing. Both of the crashed the floor as if thrown, were lifted back up, and went flying backward into the trees.

My parents had their weapons ready as they moved forward. Brian turned, looking almost annoyed. But when he spoke, it wasn't his voice.

"Please, more of this?" he waved his hand dismissively, and piles of monster dust that had been lying around collected back together into a pack of snarling hellhounds.

My parents made short work of them as they attacked, and in seconds it was just them and Urunos once again.

"Is that all?" my Mom taunted.

I stayed in the tree, watching. Not because I was afraid of grounding with enforcement by the gods, but because I was exhausted and getting mixed up in another fight with Urunos (Even it was a different host) was looking more and more like suicide. And not the kind of suicide Jacob once pulled off to stop the Pit from getting Posiedon's trident. (Heck, he even had me thinking he was dead.)

Brian/Urunos snapped his fingers, and the piles and splotches of monster dust collected again, this time into a single, massive hellhound that towered above the trees. It let off a deafening snarl, and birds scattered.

My parents got into defensive stances and leapt to either side to avoid a swipe from a paw the size of a desk. Its claws took a chunk out of the earth, and dirt rained down. Brian actually started to lift off the ground, and soon he too was floating above the trees like some high and mighty super-badass.

Looking back, it was probably ADHD that made me jump out from my hiding spot. I'd learned an old trick a while back, using the air as a sort of support to fly. And I used it now to rise up to Urunos's level.

"Alex," Brian said, his voice not his own. "I was wondering where you'd run off to. Tell me, do you want to die, or do you truly believe you can defeat me?"

Floating above the trees of the woods, my parents fighting a giant hellhound bellow, and my stomach rumbling, I realized that I'd made a big mistake. Again.

Then, it was Brian's voice that taunted like a proud maniac, "Come on Alex! Pit your own powers against mine."

"Oh, so now they're your powers?" Alex said. "Thought they belonged to Urunos."

"He only gave me the power," Brian insisted. "It's mine to command."

"Two seconds ago you were talking with his voice," I reminded him, holding my sword up defensively. Maybe, just maybe, I could talk my way out of this.

"I'm in control!" Brian insisted. "My will is my own!"

Brian's glow started to dim, and he wobbled uncertainly in the air. A look of confusion slowly spread across his face. Then, all at once, it stopped and the red and gray aura glowed bright as ever. Urunos's disapproving voice spoke.

"This one," he said, "I'm obviously going to have to keep a stronger hold on. He wants to badly to be in control."

"You're enslaving the entire Pit," I accused.

"Not just the Pit," Urunos said. It was definitely him in control now, no question at all. "This whole world is going to become an extension of myself. As a matter of fact.."

I felt that unseen hand grab hold of me and yank me closer to Urunos until I was within arms' reach. His hands touched my shoulders.

"I believe you put up some…resistance last time," Urunos said, a wicked smile spreading across Brian's possessed features. "I'm going to correct that now."

I squeezed my eyes shut, felt a quit flutter of my heartbeat, and a black lightning bolt flared across the sky and struck Urunos dead in the forehead. He lost his grip on me, I lost my focus, and I plummeted to the ground with a hard thump.

Percy, Annabeth, Mom, and Dad were all fighting the giant dog now, and winning by the looks of it. Percy was expertly keeping its attention for the majority of the time, but every so often an electric blast with strike its ear or hind quarters and its head would jerk around trying to spot its source. Dad and Annabeth were attack too, counting on Mom and Percy to keep it too occupied to attack them.

It howled in pain, or maybe anger, and tried to stomp on my mom. She dodged, but just barely, and the shake of the earth the stomp generate sent her sprawling and left the others wobbling to keep their footing. The hound's mouth shot down and in an instant, my mom was gone.

"No!" I screamed, and finally the other three noticed me.

"Alex?" Dad said in confusion. "What are you—?"

It was Annabeth who recovered from my sudden appearance quick enough to warn, "Watch out!"

The hellhound was barreling toward me, mouth wide and ready to bite. It was coming too fast, there was no time to dodge, and nowhere to run. Without hesitation, I jumped into its mouth before its teeth could tear me to shreds.

It smelled horrible in there, and underworld dog saliva is pretty slimy. Before I could stop myself, I was sliding down its throat. I stabbed my sword into the fleshy walls of the throat, trying to stop myself, but all I did was slow my descent and get a roar of anguish out of the thing.

I splashed into the stomach, stomach acids and other juices stinging my eyes and skin. Something grabbed the collar of my shirt and yanked me up out of the disgusting liquids, and as my eyes blinked it away I looked through hazy vision at my mom, clinging desperately to the inside walls of the stomach.

"Alex? What in gods' name are you doing here?" she asked.

"Can we talk about this later?" I coughed.

"Only if we get out of here," she said. "I've been trying to zap this thing from the inside out, but it's not enough."

"Maybe if we both give it a try," I suggested, now clinging to the stomach walls as well. She nodded her agreement.

Black and blue sparks danced across the walls of the stomach, arching around and causing the fleshy walls to contract and spasm. The whole body gave a violent shudder, and both my mom and I were thrown into the stomach acids once again.

The whole thing seemed to list to one side, and there was a thump that radiated through the body. Then, the steady heartbeat of the monster stopped. My mom shoved her spear through the side of the stomach, and I did the same with my sword. The beast may be dead, but we were still submerged in stomach juices and there was likely still a fight going on outside. Together, we cut our way out of the monsters guts.

Brian was gone, Dad was sprawled on the ground and Annabeth was looking him over. The massive hellhounds body slowly began to crumble to dust as Mom and I pushed ourselves out. Still covered in unspeakable horribly smelling slime and guts, my mom ran to see what was wrong.

"Nico!" she said, kneeling down to him.

"I'm fine…" he grimaced. "Just a little shaken up is all…ow."

"He's got at least one broken rib, and maybe some internal bleeding, I'm not sure yet," Annabeth contradicted. "He needs nectar and ambrosia, fast."

"We need to get him back to camp," my mom said. "Where's Percy?"

Annabeth froze, just realizing he wasn't around. She looked around frantically, but she couldn't seem to find him and neither could I.

"Percy?" she called out.

"I saw him go flying earlier," my dad said. "Over there."

I looked in the direction he'd pointed, and trotted over while Mom and Annabeth stayed with my dad. It wasn't too hard to find Percy, but I kind of wish I hadn't. He was in bad shape, and like my dad he looked to be in serious need of nectar, ambrosia, and plenty of rest.

"Found him," I called. I hoped we could get him to camp in time, because the last thing I needed was for both me and Jacob to lose our dads on the same day.

_**And that seems like as good a place as any to stop this for now. Will Percy and Nico pull through? What might Alex's reaction be when she meets Rae? And can anyone stop the madness of Urunos? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	11. Neroh Ruins the Moment

_**I was getting tired of just switching back and forth between Jacob and Alex's POV, and besides I needed someone to give a description of Jacob. So, this chapter we're indulging in a new character's words. **_

Rae's POV

I was just barely climbing out of the sewers when I heard the sudden slosh of the liquids below. I turned to look back down, but I couldn't see anything, not even Jacob. I _knew_, I _knew _there was something down there. This was just great, I finally meet a demigod (and a cute one at that) and he vanishes on me.

"Jake?" I called down, searching the depths of the sewers from above. I probably looked pretty stupid shouting down into a manhole, but I was a bit too worried to care.

For a moment there was no response, then a hand shot out and grabbed desperately to the ladder. Then a second hand, and then the blonde hair poked out from beneath the surface. Jacob started climbing up the ladder like a madman, kicking something off of his leg as he did.

"Rae, run!" he shouted before he was even halfway up the ladder.

I didn't question him. I took off, but before I was even ten feet away a geyser of sewer water shot up, catapulting Jacob into the air and spraying out in every direction, some of it hitting me with enough force to knock me to the ground.

My back was probably bruised from that hard burst of water alone, but I still rolled onto it to search for Jacob. I found him a few stories in the air, plummeting down. He hit the pavement hard, groaning.

"Jake!" I said, running to him to see if he was okay.

He wasn't moving, but he was groaning and he still had a pulse, so he was alive. What the heck had just happened? Then another, smaller water spout shot up, and I got my answer. Riding confidently at the top of the water spout was a man in battle armor, two deep blue snakes wrapped around one arm and a gleaming bronze sword in the other. He was tall, had thick muscled arms and a face covered with grizzly stubble, like he'd been stuck on an island and hadn't had a chance to shave for a while.

"Jake," I said, my voice shaking as much as I was. "Jake get up. We've got a problem."

But then he set his sights on me and Jacob, and I realized that because I was standing so close, _I _had a problem.

"Jake get up!" I said, panicking and shaking him trying to get him to stir.

He gave another groan and struggled onto his hands and knees he was clearly disoriented, and in no condition to fight, much less keep anyone else safe. I had to stall, give him time to recover.

"Rae…what's…" he mumbled, groggy but coming to.

The man riding the water spout jumped down, and the geyser flew back into the sewers form where it had come. He was headed right for us, and maybe it was just me but those snakes on his arms were looking hungry. Jacob just needed a few more seconds, but he didn't have a more than three before we both got killed.

I had to buy him some time. I ran forward, not even remotely sure what I was doing. If I could just slow him down—

I was flung aside when a torrent of water roared from his hand and struck me in the chest. I went rolling across the street, cars honking and brakes screaming. The blast hurt a lot more than I thought it would.

The man was still storming toward Jacob uninterrupted. Jacob still hadn't stood up, and he probably wasn't even aware what was going on. I had one last trick up my sleeve, one I was really hoping would work.

I ran and jumped onto the man's back, wrapped my arms as tightly as I could around his neck, and held on for dear life.

His first attempt consisted of trying to grab me, but instead I bit one of his fingers and his hands retracted in pain. But then one of the snake coiled around his arm shot forward, its fangs pointed right at my arm. I tried to let go in time, but I still felt the fangs sink into my skin and venom flow into my blood.

I dropped to the ground, feeling dizzy already. However, I had this guy's full attention. He leaned over me, he face a mix of skepticism and pity.

"Isn't that cute, the mortal girl actual tries to defend him," he said with an amused smile. "You should've run girl, and saved your own life. Now, you'll both die."

I was starting to break out in a cold sweat, and my head was feeling lighter than air. But I managed enough focus to turn to where Jacob had been. He wasn't there.

I tried to defiantly say to him, "Not today," but it came out sounding like "Ota jay." And then Jacob lunged in.

The two furiously traded blows as Jacob pushed him back, away from me. Jacob's grayish green eyes were filled with intense focus, his clothes already seeming to melt into body armor. He ducked under the big man's swing and sliced off the head of one of the snakes when it lunged for him. Jacob was incredible to watch. The man was six foot something, a giant compared to Jacob's own height that barely went a few inches above five feet, but if Jacob noticed he didn't seem to care.

I caught sight of a tattoo on Jacob's shoulder as the two combatants moved across the streets. It looked vaguely like a cross between a fork and a spear. A pitchfork? I couldn't tell, my vision was going hazy from the venom. I wondered how long I had left, but decided I didn't want to know the answer.

The water lashed out from the man again, this time aimed for Jacob. Jacob merely swept his sword in a wide arc, and all the water seemed to flow into the sapphire blue jewels embedded in the sword.

"That all you got?" Jacob's voice echoed in my ears. "Thought immortals were made of tougher stuff."

"I've only just begun to fight," the man snarled.

"That's a pity," Jacob said as he ducked under a strike and blocked another one. The man shoved hard, and Jacob went stumbling back, dropping his sword.

"No…" I whispered, helpless as I watched the man move in for the kill. Jacob had no weapon, he was off balance, and the man moved with speed I couldn't track.

But then, the impossible happened. A shield spread out from Jacob's right arm, stopping what would have been a fatal lunge. The man's eyes widened in surprise as his attack was deflected and his own sword went flying.

Then, Jacob's own sword shot out water like a firehose, and it went flying like a boomerang toward the man. It went hilt deep into his chest, the blade coming out the other side dripping gold. The man toppled to his knees, gasping.

Then he started to glow, brighter than anything I'd ever seen before. Jacob looked away, and taking the cue I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling pain filled tears being squeezed out as I did. There was a brief rush of wind, and then everything was silent. My toes were numb, my body was shivering, and the bite from the snake was burning. I blacked out.

When I came to, I was in a stark white room with something warm draped around my shoulders . My body felt stiff, and my arm was hurting like crazy, but I was alive. And for that I was grateful. I tried opening my eyes, but for a second they wouldn't listen and they stayed close. A light gasp escaped as I came back to my senses, and finally my eyes fluttered open.

Jacob was looking at me with a concerned and unsure face. "You okay?" his voice was still echoing in my head, and the world looked more than a little hazy.

"Uhh…" was the most coherent thought in my mind.

"Well, at least your awake," he said, his voice becoming more stable. Or maybe it was my hearing.

I finally realized I was in a bed, and it was Jacob's army green jacket on my shoulders. I sat up, looking around. "Where am I?"

"Apollo General," he said. "The only place in the city that could treat the poison you took. Any mortal hospital wouldn't have been able to do a thing."

"How long have I been out?" I asked, stretching my sore limbs and back.

"Not too long, only a few hours. But you almost checked out for good," he said.

I pulled the jacket sleeve back to look at the snake bite, but it was gone. The skin where it had been was a little red, but the bite mark itself was totally healed like it had never happened.

"How…"

"That was uh, me," Jacob said, almost bashfully. "You were in pretty bad shape by the time I finished that fight with Neroh. I tried using a few old water healing techniques, but they really are a lot less effective when they're used on someone who isn't related to the god of the sea. I healed the wound and slowed the poison's spread but, you needed professional help."

"So I brought you here," I finished.

"Looks like I owe you again," I joked lightly. After a moment of silence, I added "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," he said, folding his arms. "They should be letting you out of here soon. You know how to get home? If not I could probably take you where you need to go, your parents must be pretty worried by now."

I bit my lip and looked away. "My parents are dead."

"What?" he said, stunned. "Then, where do you live?"

I shrugged, still not looking at him. "Orphanage. It's pretty nice. Crowded. But nice. "

"What happened to your parents?" he asked, his voice void of confidence.

The painful memories poured in. I'd barely been eleven years old when it had happened. The walls crashing, the teeth and claws, the gore that had once been my mom splattered all over. My dad, putting up the best fight he could.

"We were attacked," I said eventually. "My dad, he was a demigod. Never told my mom, never told me, but he was one. We lived a normal life, and I thought I was just like every other kid at school. But then one day, the biggest, ugliest, meanest dog I'd ever seen is crashing into our living room. My mom was dead before she could finish her first scream."

I paused for a minute, tears forming in my eyes. I wiped them, sniffed, and continued. "My dad, he last a little longer. He went diving for the shotgun he kept underneath the couch, but…the bullets weren't Celestial bronze. "

I had to bite my lip to keep from outright sobbing. "Then…it came for me. I ran, but it was too fast. I was on the ground, pinned, and its claws were on my throat. Then, out of the blue, there's and arrow in its head and its gone. The girl who fired the shot made sure I was alive, told me to run, and got back in the fight."

"Demigods may be a menace to everyone else," I finished. "But they saved my life."

And then I hugged Jacob, squeezing the life out of him as I finally let the tears just come out. I hated remembering that day, hated the emotions it stirred up and the feeling of someone ripping out my heart I always got. I needed a shoulder to cry on, and Jacob was available. He returned the hug, awkwardly at first, but steadily it grew more natural and more comforting. Soon, he was whispering comforting words in my ear, telling me it would all be okay. My choked back sobs turn into hiccups, and eventually die down altogether.

I don't let go though of Jacob, because if I do I'm afraid he'll leave and I'll never see him again and the thought of that terrifies me. He'd swooped in when I was ten, saved my life, and then disappeared except as a faceless "menace" (or hero, depending on the channel) on the news. Now, he shows up again and saves me _again_. But already I can tell he's stayed too long, and he needs to get back. He needs to leave. /but I can't let him leave, I just can't. With his arms around me and my face buried deep into his shoulder, I feel so safe. I haven't felt safe since my parents died.

"Don't go," the words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.

He's speechless for a moment, and so am I. How could I be so selfish? Every second he spends here he could be out saving someone else or with people he actually knows. Friends, family, girlfriend—I felt my stomach cringe at the word girlfriend.

"I have to," was his eventual and expected reply. Our embrace finally ends and he stands up to go.

"At least let me give you my number," I practically begged as he left.

He agreed, and I gave it to him. He told me he didn't have a phone, but he'd call if he found one. Then he left the room, leaving me alone in the hospital bed. I just sit there, an idea working inside my head. _No, don't be stupid it would never work…_ Then I remembered I still had his jacket, and I figured just maybe this could work after all…

_**Aw so sad. I kinda liked doing Rae's POV, I might do it again. What's Rae concocting in her head? Will anything else get in the way of Jacob's return to camp? How much more would you guys have hated me if Rae had kissed Jacob instead of hugged? Because I almost wrote that. **_

_**Also, if this chapter gets at least ten reviews, next chapter will include bonus content! See, I'm going to make you wait for the next chapter, I'll just give you something extra.**_


	12. Blackjack Picks Up a Stray

_**Fan reaction to last chapter was…interesting. Looks like we have quite debate getting stirred up. Now, it's time for Jacob to be knocked off his high horse. Literally. And then get shown up by a girl.**_

_**Lucky for you guys, Wolf Fisher reviewed at around nine o clock, so a fun little bit of bonus content will be included after the end of this chapter just for you guys. **_

Jacob's POV

Rae. If I'd remembered here before, she was permanently etched into my mind now. Her story struck home in a way she would never know. That battle, just a little a year ago…

Ellen, Alex and I had been chasing hellhounds through the streets, trying to get them under control before someone got hurt. Then we ran into Evan. He'd orchestrated the whole thing as a plan to lure some of us out into the open. What he had planned for us, I didn't know. What I did know was that he was trying to take us alive that day.

We fought, but the hellhounds were getting out of control and people were getting hurt. Helen broke off to keep them under control, but they were too much for her, no matter how good an archer she was. She needed help if she was going to get them all put down fast enough.

But Alex…if I left to help Ellen, who knows what could happen. Alex was good, but one on one with Evan was a test for even the best fighters at camp. I had to make a choice. Alex was my best friend, my roommate, I owed her my life. The mortals? A bunch of stuck up and stubborn racist people with no sense of gratitude. Was it even a choice?

I couldn't risk Alex's life over a few mortal lives. Ellen wouldn't let too many die. Mortals would die though, that was guarantee. But I thought I was saving Alex. I thought it was the right choice. We managed to escape the fight with Evan alive, and Ellen did a great job with the hellhounds. She told me herself only one hellhound slipped past her.

And of course that one hellhound went on to kill Rae's parents. My choice. I could've gone with Ellen. I could've taken down those hellhounds before they had a chance to do any real harm. Rae could've had a family right now.

That was just one more reason I had to leave that hospital room as soon as I could after I heard what happened to her parents. Guilt was already creeping in, and I was expected back at camp sooner or later.

I looked up into the sky, searching for Blackjack. No matter how many times I told him to just leave and let me fend for myself, that Pegasus always stuck around until I was ready to go. No matter how annoying it was that he didn't listen, I'd always been glad that he watched my back. But now, I couldn't see him.

I put my fingers to my mouth and whistled. If Blackjack heard it, he'd be along soon enough. I figured I could wait a few minutes and if he didn't show I could just walk back or get a taxi. My thoughts shifted to Neroh. I hadn't seen him since our last tango on Mount Everest, and suddenly he shows up in the sewers just to try and kill me? Something was up.

I'd managed to get Rae out of my head by occupying myself with those thoughts. So I wasn't at all prepared when she came running up behind me.

"Rae?" I asked. "What the Hades do you think you're doing?"

"Trying to catch up with you," she said, panting slightly. "Wasn't easy either, you had a head start."

"Okay…why?" I asked. "You should be headed home, not chasing after me."

"But you forgot this," Rae said, grabbing the army green jacket she was wearing. A jacket I realized was my own, and one I'd left with her by accident.

She took the jacket off and handed it to me. I slipped it back on, thanking her. But she didn't make any move to leave, and my legs weren't letting me walk away either. A silence fell over us, and we stood there just looking at each other not sure what to say. There really was nothing more to say and yet, I didn't want to say goodbye. But I didn't have to.

The mortals around me gasped and there was the _clop _of hooves hitting the pavement followed by the bray of a horse.

_Uh, Junior…am I interrupting something? _Blackjack asked after trotting uncomfortably in place.

"I should go," I said reluctantly.

"I'll go with you," she said abruptly, then bit her lip, regretting her words.

"What?" I asked. "Rae that's crazy talk. I'm going to camp, mortals can't even make it over the hill."

_Well,_ Blackjack put in, _there was this one scary mortal redhead who made me fly her over the barriers, but she's the Oracle now, you know her?_

"Not now Blackjack," I told him.

"Jake please," she begged. "Isn't there anyway I can get in? I just want to see what it's like. Just once? I promise I'll come right back to the city afterward."

"Rae, this is nuts…" I protested.

_There's room for one more, _Blackjack mused nonchalantly.

"Gods, I'm being double-teamed," I muttered. I made a last ditch effort to convince her not to go. "I'm more than likely to be attacked by something on the way. If that happens I can't protect you."

"What have I got to lose?" she asked with growing confidence. "C'mon Jake, just take me with you. Please?"

She gave me the bambi eyes which were hard to resist. Still, I managed to climb up onto Blackjack without caving. Then she reached up and grabbed my hand, silently begging me not to leave without her. I caved.

"Alright," I said. "Climb on."

Her sad face turned into a bright smile as she climbed on behind me and wrapped her arms—tightly—around my waist, nuzzling into my back.

"Alright Blackjack," I said, glad Rae was behind me and couldn't see the blush on my face, "take us up."

And then we were flying, and she was clinging even tighter to me. I think I caught a whimper or two too. I turned my head to check up on her. The wind was whipping her hair around and she looked a little cold. I wished she was still wearing the jacket at that moment, because the way she seemed determined not complain about the cold was admirable but hard to watch at the same time. She seemed bent on proving she wasn't a weak mortal girl even though, in all honesty, she was one.

"Afraid of heights?" I asked.

"No," she gulped. "Afraid of hitting the ground from high up? Yes. But I'm not afraid of _heights_. Oh wow, we are really high. _Really _high…"

I couldn't help but chuckle, but nevertheless asked, "Hey Blackjack, mind lowering our altitude a little?"

We lost altitude, but Rae didn't seem to relax any. I sighed. "Just take it easy," I instructed. "Relax, and just remember everything will be fine."

We were passing over woods on the way to camp, when something caught my attention. It was small, faint, but it was there. A grayish red glow that briefly pulsed in the trees somewhere, apparently moving in the general direction of camp.

"Hey, whoa," I said to Blackjack, and he slowed in response. "Take us down, I wanna check that out. Just fly low, no need to land."

Blackjack snorted, and we came in low and slow over where I'd seen the flash. I scanned the treeline, but there was nothing in sight. I blinked and looked around, but I couldn't find anything. "Must've been seeing things…"

"Jake," Rae tried to warn me.

But then the hammer struck me in the side, and Rae and I both went flying off of Blackjack and into the trees below.

_**Fifty-five points to whoever can guess the latest person to attack Jacob. So yes, in a way Jacob's choice killed Rae's parents. That's going to be an interesting conversation. Or will it? Who knows. What I do know is…**_

_The following bonus content takes place outside the canon AU universe, and exists solely as a reward for the readers. The views and opinions expressed in this bonus content are solely those of the characters who express them and do not reflect the position of Project Phoenix or its foremost author operative, Agent 003. Thank you, and enjoy._

003 stood in the center of the stage, the whole place decorated to the point of distastefulness with red and pink. Heart shaped balloons only served to take more blows at 003's pride.

"I could've been a sniper for first squad, but nooo, I had to sign up to be a game show host," he muttered. Then in his over excited game show host voice, he said to the audience, "HELLOOOOO everybody! It's time once again to play Date That Demigod!"

The audience applauded and cheered on cue from the above lights, and 003 begged for someone to shoot him. He swore the pink and red were burning his skin. His only condolence was that he would not be suffering alone.

"Join us today, the child of the prophecy, the Hybrid Hero, the son of Seaweed Brain himself! Jacob Jackson!"

The audience again applauded as two—very large—security cupids dragged Jacob on stage. He was struggled all the way, but eventually they forced him down into a chair and secured him there with wrist restraints. He tried briefly to pull himself free, but a zap from a stun gun got him to stop.

"Welcome Mr. Jackson!" 003 greeted happily ruffling the boy's blonde hair. "Ready to play?"

"Play what?" Jacob asked. "I was on my way to sword practice when a bag get thrown over my head. I get knocked out along the way and next thing I know, I'm here! Where is here anyway?"

003 did a facepalm and point up at the enormous sign written with giant lightbulb letters that spelled out the name of the show. Jacob look down from the sign and the six cameras all pointing at him from different angles. It clicked in the young Hybrid's head about then.

"Oh no…" he groaned.

"That's right!" 003 said, forcing that smile again. "Now, let's meet the two girls who will be strangling— er, _competing _for your affections today! Give it up everybody for Bachelorette #1!"

The applause resumed as a spotlight hit the semi-see through heart, revealing the silhouette of a girl sitting in a chair and wearing a microphone headset. The silhouette was jerking from one side to the other, but the chair wasn't budging at all.

"Bachelorette #1 is a beautiful girl, a little older and a lot more stubborn! She's just as likely to stab you as she is kiss you, she's always had your back, and she has an annoying tendency to prove even the smartest children of the prophecy can be pretty stupid. She's known you all your life and without her you wouldn't have been born! Watch out for those overprotective parents and grandparents!"

She enjoys short sprints into the battlefield and she's terrified of the word "love"," 003 finished. "Well #1, anything to say before we get started?"

A heavily disguised voice came over the speakers as she spoke up. "Get me out of here! I swear when I find out who did this I'll—"

003 was very glad they'd given him a mute button to use on an as needed basis. Fearing the wrath of #1 when this was over, but not having much of a choice if he wanted to keep his job he continued. "Okay then! I'm terrified but, moving on! Let me introduce, Bachelorette #2!"

A similar process was repeated for introducing #2, but when her silhouette was reveal, she wasn't struggling at all. She gave a polite wave through the screen, but Jacob, his hands being tied down, couldn't wave back.

"Bachelorette #2 is a familiar face, with classic looks to go with that classic damsel in distress scenario she constantly finds herself in. She's great at taking direction, needs a strong shoulder to cry on and she has an unexplained but very convenient interest in half-bloods and men with swords. You've saved her life twice and she's returned the favor! She enjoys long walks on the beach and she's not afraid to love."

"Say hi to everybody #2!" 003 said.

"Hey everybody," came the disguised, squeaky mouse-like voice. "Hey Jake."

"Do I know you?" Jacob asked. He hadn't caught on that the voices of the girls had been disguised, and he was positive no one he knew sounded like _that_. The crowd laughed, and 003 leaned in and quickly explained the concept to Jacob. When it was done, Jacob had a look on his face that said, "wow, I'm stupid."

"Alright Jacob, this is the first round so ask each a girl three questions. They can pertain to anything, except of course their true identity," 003 prompted.

"Or I could sit here and not say anything," Jacob tried. "What happens then?"

"You're a smart kid Jacob," 003 said, pulling out the stun gun and turning it on. "What do you _think _happens?"

"Okay!" Jacob said. "Uh #1, if uh…let's see…I don't suppose you know how to get out of here? Ow!"

Jacob glared at 003 who'd zapped him. "Okay fine…what's your favorite thing to do in your spare time?"

"You should know, you're usually there," the girl responded.

The crowd laughed, and it took both #1 and Jacob a moment to figure out why. He wasn't sure, but Jacob was pretty sure the girl was blushing like him.

"No!" she said, trying to save her dignity. "I didn't mean it like _that_! Oh gods…"

003 laughed at the "that's what she said" moment before prompting, "Okay Jacob, ask #2 a question now."

"How come you're the only one not restrained?" Jacob asked.

"Oh, that's because I actually agreed to this," she said in a chipper tone.

"Why?" Jacob asked incredulously.

"Well, I didn't go for it at _first_, but then they told me you would be the guy and I said yes in a heartbeat!" she told him.

"Really? So you…?"

"Yup," she said, confirming his unanswered question.

"Wow," Jacob said, shocked. "I gotta ask—"

"Actually Jacob," 003 interrupted, "you _don't _gotta, because that's three. Four if I count "really". You gotta be fair, so #1 gets two more questions."

"Joy."

-A long time of awkwardness and flirtation later-

"Alright final question for #1," 003 announced. He was just as happy as everyone else that this was finally over. #2 had been willing enough in everything so far, and so had Jacob with the proper…motivation. But #1…let's just say one of the stage hands had a broken arm.

"#1," 003 asked, "have you ever admitted your feelings for our dear friend Jacob?"

For once in the entire show, #1 was flustered. "Uh…well, no I don't think I've told him…but only because there's nothing to tell! Well, I supposes there's something but…uh…oh gods nevermind! Just skip it…"

"Alright Jacob, it's time to choose," 003 said. "I'm assuming that head of your has figured this out by now, so who will it be? Your cabinmate and best friend Alex?"

The screen pulled back to reveal Alex similarly strapped to a chair, still struggling. She stopped when she realized everyone, including Jacob, could see her. She gave a glare at 003, then did her best to wave at Jacob with her restraints.

"Or the mortal in distress Rae?" 003 asked.

Rae, not restrained like Alex or Jacob, blew Jacob a kiss in greeting when her screen was pulled away. Alex glared at her, making Jacob blush.

"Uh…" Jacob said, looking between on girl and the other.

"Well…?" 003 prompted.

"I…uh…"

"And we're out of time, this is just bonus content after all," 003 said, flying out through the forth wall and returning safely to his desk, where he continued to finish typing this sentence.

"Wait, what?" Alex asked, but it was too late because this bonus thing plus the chapter it goes with is too long for the author's tastes.


	13. Brian Begs for Help

_**We're entering the beginning of the end of Olympus's pride. The first half of this story is turning into, for lack of a better description, a story of setbacks. Soon though, Urunos is going to push the "good guys" to make some very questionable choices. Until that happens, I hope you guys can live with the Pit owning Jacob and friends.**_

Jacob's POV

Rae and I crashed through the trees, my side aching from where the hammer had hit. Rae was a ways off, holding her head. I pushed myself onto my feet, pain slowly going away. I helped Rae up, and she dusted herself off.

"Thanks," she said. "What _was_ that?"

I looked around, and found the hammer that had hit me in the ribs. Its shaft looked very familiar. And in the infuriating way. My clothes morphed back into armor in response to the anger and adrenaline that was in my system. My eyes looked back up, scanning the woods for him, and his named hissed out from between my lips.

"Brian," I said, like it was some horrible curse word.

Brian and I did not have a good history. Back in my first days at camp he earned my trust, and then stabbed me in the back on behalf of the Pit. Our relationship hadn't improved any last year, when that gods damned son of Hephaestus kidnapped Alex and tried to sacrifice her to a sea monster, all part of some ploy to try and get _me _to steal Poseidon's trident.

There was the anything but stealthy sound of leaves and brush being crushed under someone's step, and both Rae and I snapped in the direction of the noise. Sure enough Brian stepped out of the trees, that same stupid grin on his face as always. When I'd met him, I thought it meant he was always in a good mood. Now I know it's just because he's always fantasizing of smashing my head like a watermelon.

But this time he looked…different. His eyes burned with a grayish red glow, and a light haze seemed of the same color seemed to radiate from his body. The color looked warm, but the way the air felt around him made a freezer feel like a hot tub.

"Jacob, I was hoping I'd run into you on the way," he greeted, but there was a strange echo effect to his voice, like someone else was repeating everything he said but a little out of sync.

"Brian," I greeted. "You look…different."

"You noticed?" he joked. "I lost a few pounds, got a haircut, and oh yeah, I wield the full power of Urunos himself."

Borrowing a line from Alex, I said in an unimpressed tone, "Meh."

His smile shrank a little. "What about you Jakey? Growing up on me? How old are you now? Six? Seven?"

"Thirteen," I corrected through clenched teeth.

"It matters," he said sarcastically. "It's been great chasing you down all these years Jakey, but…"

"Let me guess," I interrupted, "it ends here?"

Brian reached into his quiver and clicked shaft into a javelin. "Just try not to move too much and I promise this'll be quick and painless."

He threw the javelin, and my hand shot down into my pocket. Within a second miz was in my hand. An instant later, he clicked into full sword form just in time for me to bat aside incoming javelin. It went flying off course, but my left hand shot out, grabbed it, and flung it back at Brian. It exploded halfway in between us.

_Judges of Badassery? _Miz joked. _Eh….six outta ten. Could've used a one-liner._

"Rae…" I warned, in case she was still watching, "run."

And then I charged forward. Brian reached into his quiver and pulled out two shafts out from the quiver on his back. Both clicked into two hammers, like the one he'd used to knock me out of the sky in the first place. My left hand pulled my coin and with a squeeze it formed into a shield.

Brian swung and I raised my shield to block just in time. The hammer heads gonged against the shield and sent vibrations all the way up to my skull, but I kept my focus and swung with my sword. Brian raised his other hammer, blocking it with the shaft of his own hammer.

The same rhythm fell into place. I could only block the hammers with my shield or dodge, but they were too heavy to parry or block with the sword. My slices and swings couldn't get past Brian's defense, only a good lunge could do that. But those were hard to get in, and even harder to hit somewhere where they could do enough damage.

Then he made the mistake of trying to bring a hammer down on my skull. My sword lashed out, and I cut his weapon at the shaft. The head fell uselessly to the ground, leaving him with a hammer and a stick as his weapons. He tossed the sliced shaft aside and then, surprisingly, dropped his other good hammer.

"Surrendering already?" I panted, still in a defensive posture in case he tried anything.

The glow in Brian's eyes and around his body turned brighter, and the air shimmered as something sent me flying backward and into a tree. I dropped Miz, who went flying away as he shrunk back into a pen, and my shield turned back into a coin in my palm. Brian confidently stepped forward, hand raised and fire dancing across his fingertips.

I crushed the coin back into a shield and raised it just as a ball of fire splashed over it. Then, a continuous stream of fire shot from his hand, and it became a challenge to keep my shield raised. I peeked out from behind it at Brian. His eye sockets seemed filled with that glow by now, and that light haze had turned to a burning aura around him.

"Urunos," I said as realization dawned on me.

"Oh, look who's finally figured it out," Urunos taunted. "I'm almost disappointed this is the best fight you could put up, after what Neroh told me."

"Yeah? You run into him?" I asked. I had to stall until Miz came back to me, and the best way to do that was indulge Urunos's ego.

"Goodbye Jackson," he said in simple response, and the intensity of the flames increased.

"Even if you kill me this won't end," I protested as the heat began to build up. I was already feeling it through the shield

"You are their only hope, Jackson," Urunos said. "Or rather, were."

I looked to the skies and pulled my last ace out of my sleeve. Blackjack had come through once before today, but who's to say he can't do it twice.

"Blackjack!" I called.

There was the sound of a single, heavy wing flap, and then the black Pegasus crashed through the trees and planted a mule kick on Urunos's face. The possessed demigod and the evil god he was hosting went flying backward, and I finally was able to get up and run.

_How'd I do Junior? _Blackjack asked.

"You did great, now book," I yelled as I went looking for Rae at full sprint. "Rae!"

"Jake!" she called in response. I didn't have time to see where it was from, because a telekinetic attack by Urunos sent my flying backward, straight toward him. I bumped hard into his chest before falling to the ground on my hands and knees. He shoved me all the way to the ground and placed his hands firmly on my shoulders.

"As much as I will hate having to stare at your annoying likeness, I could use someone like you in my army Jackson," he explained. "Say goodbye to free w— argh!"

The hands left my shoulders, and I rolled to see an arrow protruding from his eye socket. We were too far from camp for it to be Ellen or her brothers. It had to be…no…

"Hunters!" came a girl's voice. "Bring him down!"

Arrows shot forward, and although some were stopped midair by Urunos's telekinetic block, others found their mark and he howled in pain with each impact. The silver clad hunters seemed to materialize from the forest, all of them with bows drawn.

Then, a girl about twelve years old daringly leapt out in front of Urunos with two hunting knives drawn. She ducked under Urunos's half blind swing and sliced his stomach. Then she parried his attempt at a right hook and stabbed his shoulder. Urunos staggered back, cursing. The girl jumped forward and a gush of blood later, Brian's body was finished.

The glow seemed to evaporate from him, and he fell to the grass gasping from his fatal wound. He managed to croak out, "Jacob!"

I stepped forward, intent on spitting on his body. But what he said stopped me.

"You…you have to stop him," he begged. "He has…everyone. The Pit, it's his. He—" he paused to enter a violently coughing fit. "He's building an army. The mortals, us, _you_. He's building an army…stop him. B-b…" more coughing, "before it's too late…"

And then Brian was dead.

"What the Hades?" I asked when I could finally speak.

"Urunos's hold is strong," the girl who'd killed him explained, "but it can be broken. The easiest way is death."

"The easiest way," I said. "Got it. So, it was Urunos in control?"

"I don't pretend to understand the nature of the God of Heavens," she said. "But this demigod could not have done the things he had done if he hadn't been hosting Urunos."

She was skilled, she knew more about what had just happened than anyone else, and all other Hunter eyes were on her. I bowed lightly out of respect, "Lady Artemis."

"Jacob," she returned. "I'm going to assume your unaware of the dire state of your beloved home?"

"What do you mean dire state?" I asked, worried.

"Camp Half-Blood is under attack," she said. "By everyone, and everything the Pit can throw at it. If you wish to try and save it, you'd better come with us. My Hunters and I are on our way to assist."

I looked around the woods surrounding us for one face in particular, but Artemis beat me to it. "Your mortal friend is safe Jacob. She's with one of my Hunters, we found her running through the woods."

"Brian attacked us," I explained. "I couldn't keep us both safe so I told her to run."

"At least you understand your own limitations," she said, and turned to her other Hunters. "Prepare to move!"

"You will be coming with us then?" she asked.

"You know it," I said.

_**Alright, coming up next time is a very…bad turn of events. See if you can handle it, because I'm not even sure I can. Don't worry, if I decide to put Jacob and Alex together, I'm not going to turn Rae into the Oracle. Racheal still has that position. Anyway, please review so I might get a celebrity guest to do the AN next chapter.**_


	14. Artemis Brings the Mortal

_**002: Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmi— wait a minute. 1136, you lied. You said Taylor Swift was gonna be here to do the AN.**_

_**1136: Well she couldn't make it. So YOU'RE doing it.**_

_**002: Ugh, I'll get 003 for this later. Welcome! This is the longest battle scene so far, its preceded by romance and it ends with the most shocking event yet to hit the series.**_

_**1136: Do yourself a favor and play some dramatic music while you read this.**_

We were moving fast. The hunters were amazing runners, keeping up with me and Rae on Blackjack. I wanted to get into the air and have Blackjack get us there even faster, but if Artemis was right we were fighting more than one Urunos. Well, people possessed by Urunos. Either way, this was not a fight I wanted to tackle alone.

No matter how fast we moved, it didn't feel fast enough. Alone Brian had nearly put me down for the count. I didn't want to think what an army of people like that could do, especially to my home. Especially if any of the people I cared were there. Rae seemed able to tell I wasn't feeling alright.

She tapped on my shoulder as we rode, and I turned back to look at her.

"Worried?" she asked.

"Am I that obvious?" I asked with a half chuckle. I tried to take my mind off of camp for a moment. Thinking about a problem I was helpless to solve would do nothing except of course make me want to scream.

"Pretty much," she told me with a sigh. "So…what are you up against?"

"Just about the worst odds of my life," I said. "My home's being attacked, and I can barely handle on Urunos slave, much less an army."

"What do you think the odds are you'll survive?" Rae asked.

"I don't even want to think about that," I said. "If I do, I might was well finish myself off and save Urunos the trouble."

"Jake…" she whispered, trying to comfort me. I felt her snuggle against my back, and I admit I felt just a little bit stronger and a little bit more hopeful.

"There's the hill," Artemis warned, and I saw she was right. Half-Blood Hill loomed ahead, and towering from it was the pine tree that had once been Alex's mother, the golden fleece hanging around it, glittering in the setting sunlight. The sight filled me with hope that maybe, just maybe, this place would last.

Then I pulled Blackjack to a stop at the top of the hill, and my heart sank.

"That's Camp Half-Blood…" I gasped, as if just realizing it.

"Jake…"

"This…this can't be happening," I told myself.

_It is. Get over it. _Miz advised.

I watched as three figures, glowing red just as Brian had, rained down fire and energy on my home. Trees shattered into splinters, the roof of the Big House caught fire, the climbing wall toppled, crushing two campers underneath. And one very familiar, black clad female figure was struck dead in the chest by a blast on flame.

I dropped off of Blackjack, who neighed sadly. I tried to form words, or even move, but couldn't. There weren't more than ten glowing bodies total. And they were tearing the camp to ribbons. I think I forgot how to breathe, and Miz slid out of my grip. I lost track of the world, and suddenly Rae was shaking me telling me to snap out of it.

"Jake!" she yelled. "The Hunters are already in that mess. Go, you have to help!"

"What good would I do?" I asked. There was an explosion of fire, and bodies went flying. It was a losing battle.

"You have to try," Rae insisted. I just turned away in shame. "Jake! Your friends are dying down there!"

"I can't save them, why try," I asked. I wondered if slitting my own throat would be very painful.

Then, everything flipped upside down. Rae grabbed me by the shoulders, turned me toward her, and kissed me full on the lips. The first thing that did was snap me out of whatever depressed fog seeing Camp Half-Blood in flames had put me in. Then, it practically doubled my heart rate and made me feel stronger than ever. But before I could even start to enjoy the kiss itself, she pulled away.

"Jake I believe in you," she told me. "If anyone can save them you can."

I'd have to talk to her about what had just happened later, because she was right. If there was even the slightest chance that one more body could save camp, I had to take it. I grabbed Miz off the ground and crushed the coin into shield form.

Without a word, I ran down into that mess.

The first thing on my list was find Alex. I'd seen her take a hit out by where the volleyball courts should have been, but I couldn't see her now. I looked around, but she was out of sight. Suddenly, a ball of fire splashed at my feet.

I jumped back, looking up to see a glowing figure. He wore so much battle armor, I couldn't even tell if I was looking at I guy or a girl. What I could tell was he was carrying a two-handed sword with one hand and he was glowing with the aura of Urunos.

I looked around, but I was on my own.

"Time for a rematch old man!" I taunted.

"I think you'll find this host to be far more challenging than the previous one," the echoing baritone responded.

Urunos thrust his hand forward, and a blob of inky black _something_ came flying at me. I tried slicing it out of the air with Miz, but it seemed to swallow the sword and soon my arm instead. Then it was crawling across my shoulders and back and face.

"Die," Urunos commanded.

Whatever this stuff was, it was enveloping me pretty quick, and I was pretty sure that whatever happened when it finished covering me wasn't going to be pretty. But I'd escaped Urunos's traps before. My body broke out in what was a cold sweat at first, and then my entire body melted into a column of water which puddled to the ground, free of the inky cloud Urunos had tried to encase me in.

I rematerialized as the black cloud dispersed, and Urunos gripped his sword. I ran forward, and soon our blades were clashing. After a brief bout, we froze as our blades locked together.

"You are one, I am many," Urunos said coldly.

I shoved him back and tried to slice neck, but he parried aggressively. I staggered back from his strength and rolled to avoid a blast of fire. I came up and just managed to raise my shield to block his downward strike. The blade dug slightly into my shield, temporarily getting stuck.

"Even if you prevail here, you will only delay my victory," he stated.

"Shut up!" I shouted back, and hilt slammed him in the temple. He grunted and I kicked him in the stomach, breaking him free of my shield.

I brought my blade down hard on his helmet, and it flew away. So it was a guy underneath that armor. I tried to cut him across his face, but the blade sparked harmlessly across his skin.

"The curse of Achilles serves me well," Urunos taunted.

My eyes widened, and I back flipped to avoid a sword strike. I lost my shield in the flip and still got cut under my arm. I gritted my teeth and did my best to ignore the pain as I readied my sword in defense. Urunos laughed and with a wave of his hand I was lifted into the air. He made a gesture of pulling, and I was wrenched toward his waiting sword point.

I frantically tried to parry the waiting sword away, and accidentally ended up with my sword tip embedded in Urunos's palm. He gasped as blood flowed from the wound. By sheer luck, I'd hit the mortal point on his host's body. The reddish gray glow faded away, and the boy collapsed with a mighty clang as the armor hit the floor.

At first I was speechless, amazed I'd won. Then, I cried out in victory. The battle around me was still raging and it was far from won, but I'd proved to myself that not only could Urunos's slaves be killed, but even if they were invulnerable they weren't guaranteed to win.

There was a crash of thunder, then another. I looked to the sky as black lightning came down, striking a glowing red body. Her name echoed through my head as I took off running. _Alex_.

I got close enough, and I saw Alex was not alone. Fighting at her side was Roxanne from Ares, and Han, my old satyr protector from when I was ten. Still one of the best out there, if I do say so myself.

"You like that?" Alex shouted. "Have some MORE!"

Another lightning strike hit the glowing red figure. It was the three of them against one Urunos slave, and they looked like they were doing alright. That was until Han suddenly lifted into the air and was suddenly suspended upside down. He tried to throw one of his knives, but it too was caught by the slave's telekinesis before it could hit.

Han went flying as if thrown, straight into Roxanne who cursed as they impacted. Alex was alone, and she looked tired. I ran forward and jumped up. The slave was still flying too high for my jump alone to get me within striking distance. I pointed Miz down, and a jet stream of water shot out, propelling me upward. The Urunos slave was still too busy with Alex to notice me, although Alex herself saw me and a smile spread across her face.

I stabbed down as hard as I could, and then both me and the now aura-less body plummeted to the ground. I wrenched my weapon free, panting. Alex ran forward, and tackled me in a hug for half a second.

"Jacob!" she said after she pulled away. "Gods, I thought you'd never get here!"

"What the Hades is going on?" I screamed over the sounds of battle.

"We're getting our asses kicked, that's what's happening!" Roxanne put in, dusting herself off.

"Urunos's slaves attacked in force. Fifteen of them. We've taken a few of them down, but they're taking out a lot of us Jacob."

"Which is why we should stop talking and start killing!" Roxanne interrupted, waving one of her twin swords forward.

The four of us charged forward, our goal: Take back Camp Half-Blood. The Hunters had cornered a Urunos slave in the remains of the amphitheater, firing arrows and dodging fireballs like they were born to do it, they didn't need help.

The lone, little archer with an empty quiver who was running from a robed Urunos slave looked like he could use a hand though. The lone, unarmed camper disappeared into the arena with the Urunos slave close behind him.

"C'mon, we can still catch up!" I shouted.

"Will and Henry!" Han shouted, pointing to two figures fighting near the shore of the canoe lake. They were losing their battle with their opponent. "They need a hand!"

"You and Alex help them, we'll take this one!" I shouted. Surprisingly, the others agreed without a single word of protest.

We split up, and Roxanne and I headed into the sword arena. Inside, I could see the small camper cowering in fear of the glowing red Urunos slave.

"I never get tired of doing this Urunos," I called, getting his attention. He spun around, but before I could even make another snappy remark a gust of wind sent Rae and I flying backward. Then, I felt immobilized. Urunos's telekinesis was holding us stiff.

"All too easy," Urunos taunted. "I am everywhere at once. When I kill you Jackson, I'm also killing your friends all across this camp. The boy with the trident, the Hybrid girl. And my true self is not even here. I'm still miles away. But I'm coming. And when I arrive, I will burn this place."

He raised his sword to finish me off. Even if I turned into water, he would just hold that in place. I only had one chance to survive this stab. I transformed my body into water as he stabbed down, and just before the blade hit my watery body flash froze. I was the worlds smartest ice sculpture.

I was shattered into a million pieces, scattering around the ground. Thinking I was dead, he turned to Roxanne. I reformed as quickly as I could grabbed Miz up off the ground, and stabbed. I was learning that you couldn't take these things head on, you had to out smart, out flank, and out number them.

It should've killed him, but instead, it just hit his back and went no further. A gust of wind sent me flying, and I crashed into one of the arena walls. I groaned in pain and slowly got up, stretching the kinks and my bruises.

"That's cheating," I complained.

"You have no chance," Urunos said matter-of-factly.

"You brag way too much," I retorted.

I emptied all the water out of the crystals in my sword, suspending it in midair. I divided it up and froze it into icicles, and had them attack at as many different angles as he could. One hit the mark, and he went down with an icicle in his side.

"Thanks," the young kid said. "I thought I was dead. James, son of Apollo."

"Apollo?" I asked. "Where's the rest of your cabin?"

"I _am _the rest of my cabin," he said. "My brother, my sister…they're gone. I don't suppose you have any arrows for me?"

"Use this," Roxanne advised, and tossed him one of her swords. He managed to catch it, but he looked at it like it was a twenty-four speed lawnmower.

"What?" he asked. "I can't use a sword."

"Adapt," Roxanne told him.

A single glowing red figure shot into the sky and began rained down blast after blast of fire. I tightened my grip on Miz. "C'mon, last one!"

Roxanne and I took off running, and soon we were standing next to Alex, Henry, Han, and Will in the middle of what was left of the cabins. We all readied our weapons, staring up at the lone menace trying to tear apart our home.

She was without a doubt on of my half-sisters, a child of Athena. And Urunos now had full control over her.

"Let's finish this," Henry said.

"Careful, she's invulnerable," Alex warned.

"She'll be my third invincible kill then," I told her. Gone was the moping heap of flesh who'd been frozen at the sight of the hill. Back was the confidence, determination, and with a little added fury. I was getting really tired of Urunos.

"Take her down!"

She flung her hand dismissively, and Roxanne, Will, and Henry went flying back. Han threw his first knife, which she deflected. He threw the second, and she stopped it midair before letting it harmlessly drop. Han ran, maybe for the armory, maybe for his life. Didn't matter, because a telekinetic pull launched him into the air.

Then she turned her sights on Alex and I. The two of rolled in opposite direction to avoid a fireball, but we were both frozen mid roll. And then we were slammed together, forced pressed against each other.

"Uh…hi," I said awkwardly.

"Not now Smart One," Alex shot back and aimed a blast of lightning. It got us free and made the enslaved girl cringe in pain, but this fight wasn't over.

_Here comes the cavalry! _Miz said.

An arrow bounced off of the girl's shoulder, and all our heads spun. Artemis, back up by four battered Hunters, stood proudly with bows drawn. The enslaved host tried to fire off a blast of fire, but Artemis actually used an arrow to snuff out the flame.

It carried forward, hit the girl's eye and bounced off. It locked my hands together and kneeled down, and Alex took the hint. She one foot on my hands and her hands on my shoulders, and I launched her into the air.

She drew her sword and sliced, and but her blade had no effect. Instead, Urunos grabbed her by the shoulders and smiled. The glow intensified briefly, and Alex struggled. For a moment, it seemed the girl's aura was spreading to Alex, but then the glow disappeared altogether.

"Get off of me!" Alex shouted, and a blast of black lightning hit the girl on the chest. Both the girl and Alex fell to the ground.

"I…" the girl said, and in a normal voice. "I'm free. I'm—"

Then she grimaced, curled into the fetal position, and broke out in a cold sweat. She was suffering. She looked to us, who were watching with confused looks, and then shouted, "Run!"

The red aura returned to the girl, and a wave of force sent everyone but Artemis flying backward. The goddess of the Hunt simply drew her hunting knives. I heard her whisper, "I'm sorry."

Then the two moved forward at each other, and I felt myself blacking out.

_**003: And scene. Now, FINALLY (You have no idea what I have to go through to write these fight scenes.) we can take a break from the fight scenes. Tomorrow, we finally see what happens when you put a girl who secretly likes a guy in the same space as a girl who publicly likes the same guy. And one of them has a sword….**_

_**002: Are you talking about our first date?**_

_**003: No, you had a steak knife not a sword.**_

_**002: Still fought off those ninjas…**_


	15. Chiron Bites the Bullet

_**I know what the preview said, but it was written when an entirely different version of this story existed. A sucky version I might add. So, as you probably know, there a certain scenes from the preview that have been edited to match this new version. Hope you don't mind.**_

"Jake…" I heard a voice say. I came to with Rae looking over me. Around, I looked to see the remains of Camp Half-Blood.

"Rae…" I said. My first logical question was, "How did you get in here?"

"Well, I don't know exactly," Rae said. "It felt like I was moving through syrup when I was trying to come down the hill, but then all at once I was in and I could move like normal."

"Your dad was a half-blood right?" I asked, sitting up.

"Yeah," she said, and offered a hand to help me up. I took it, rising to my feet. "That might explain it. What happened with you?"

"Jacob!" another voice called. I turned to see Alex walking over, and somehow I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach this was going to end badly.

"Jacob your alive!" she said, and tackled me in a hug. Then she hit me. "We were gonna toss you with the bodies, you jerk! Next time let me know you're okay so I don't have to worry all night."

"I'll keep that in mind," I joked. "How is everything?"

Alex's face fell. "Not good. We're still taking stock but…Jacob, some of the cabins were wiped out completely. And others have only one or two survivors."

"Gods…" I whispered in shock.

"I'm so sorry," Rae put in. Alex turned to her, and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah... You know, I don't recognize you from any of the cabins," Alex said skeptically. "Are you new?"

"No," Rae said.

Alex turned to me. "Jacob…who is this?" I caught the slightest trace of resent in her voice.

"Oh, right," I said. "Rae, this is Alex. Alex, this is Rae. I guess you could say we're…uh…"

"You're what, Jacob?" she asked.

"Well," I said, trying to explain it. "I'm not exactly sure. We just met so…well technically we met two years ago when we were ten…I guess we're friends."

I looked to see if Rae was okay with being called friends. She didn't seem to mind. But that sparkle in her eye told me she'd enjoyed that kiss up on the hill. A lot.

"So, are you Jacob's girlfriend?" Rae asked casually.

"What?" Alex and I said at the same time.

"No," Alex answered. "We're just friends. Just lifelong friends who share the same cabin."

"Really?" Rae said with a smile. "That's so cool."

"Uh…right," Alex said. I could tell that Rae's happy, almost sarcasm free attitude was pushing her buttons. Alex wasn't a people person. More of a…dead people person. "Why do you ask anyway?"

Rae cast a brief but outright flirty look my direction before saying, "Why do you think?"

Alex's eyes widened just a little bit, and I felt my face heat up. With an obvious measure of forced control Alex asked, "So you're a mortal then?"

"Yeah, I guess I am," Rae said.

Alex turned to me, definitely angry now. I gulped "You let a _mortal_ past the barriers? Did you forget what happened when Chiron let those reporters in? They tried to kidnap one of the Demeter kids!"

"Jacob didn't let me in!" Rae interrupted. Alex looked to her skeptically. "My dad was a demigod, Jacob thinks that's how I got past the 'border' or whatever the heck it is."

Alex looked at me like, _Why the Hades is there a _mortal _girl in front of me?_ Instead, something worse came out from her. "So you're dating a mortal?"

"What?" I asked, and it was Rae's turn for her eyes to widen. "No I just—"

"You brought her to camp," Alex listed. "She's flirting with you like there's no tomorrow, and you're blushing about as red as a strawberry."

"We're not—" I protested, but Rae interrupted me.

"Let her think what she wants," Rae said. "I don't mind."

And then Rae just had to kiss me on the cheek. We got a death glare from Alex, but Rae just smiled innocently. Alex didn't like that. "So when is she leaving?"

"Alex, c'mon she had nowhere else to go," I said, trying to persuade her otherwise. But Alex wouldn't have it. For whatever reason, she and Rae were really not getting along. I couldn't help but briefly feel like the cause of it, but then scolded myself for being full of myself. As if Alex could get _this _worked up over me. I needed to get over myself.

"There's a million other places besides here," Alex said. "This is where we come to _get away _from mortals. I'm going to talk to Chiron about— oh gods! Chiron!"

She took off running, and I ran after her, glad this…whatever it was with Alex and Rae was at least temporary over. Rae tagged along too, but I think it was more out of curiosity or because she didn't want to be standing around alone in a place where no one knew her and her kind wasn't welcome, not concern for a horseman.

We found Will and Roxanne trying to lift the shambles that had once been the Hermes cabin, but it was too heavy. Alex and I stepped up to help, and the four of us hefted aside the biggest piece of wall to reveal the crumpled centaur below. He wasn't moving.

"No…" I said.

Alex shouted at the top of her lungs, "James! James!"

That poor kid from the Apollo cabin was all we had left as a healer, unless you counted water healing. Then we had James, Henry, and me. The son of Apollo, still with the sword Roxanne had given him, ran over from where he'd been at the mess hall.

"What do you— oh," he said when he saw Chiron. "Give me some room!"

Everybody backed up, Rae included. Slowly, bit by bit as James worked, the whole camp gathered to watch. The younger kids were crying. A little daughter of Aphrodite ran and hugged the closest person she could find, which happened to be Rae. The little girl, who was no older than nine, furious cried into Rae's chest.

Chiron wasn't moving the entire time. I felt Alex grab my hand. Normally that would be weird, but at the moment I was glad. I needed _someone _to pull me through this, and she did too. And, just feeling the warmth of her hand helped assure me that at least she was alive and well.

James' eyes were forming tears as he tried every healing technique he knew, magical or otherwise. No one said a thing, no one turned away. We all watched in horror as James fruitlessly tried to bring back the dead. Even Rae was awed into silence by our collective dread.

Will, the oldest surviving camper, stepped forward after two hours of James getting nowhere. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "He's gone."

Tears broke Alex's eyes, but she stood tall and firm. She made no noise, just let the tears run down her face. We'd all known two hours ago, but it was Will's words that really drove the stake home. Chiron, our mentor, our protector, Hades he was even a bit of a father figure. He was dead, and he wasn't coming back.

"Stand aside!" a girl's voice said, breaking the silence. The crowd parted as a Hunter, her clothes tattered and a broken bow in her hands, stepped forward. "Has anyone seen my goddess?"

It struck me that Artemis was nowhere to be seen either. We looked around, and soon the crowd of mourners were searching the valley for either Artemis or a sign of where she'd gone. It was Henry who found it.

The bow of the goddess of the Hunt, snapped in half. The body of that final slave of Urunos was on the ground, a hunting knife jutting out of her thigh. But Artemis herself? She was gone, having left behind the two surviving Hunters.

Chiron was dead, Artemis was missing, the Camp was half destroyed, and now Alex and Rae were fighting for gods know why! My life was getting worse and worse.

_***sniff* That is the third to last appearance Artemis will make in this series. Chiron is dead. On the bright side, Alex is jealous. Very jealous. How was this chapter, I really want to know. I'm a little worried.**_


	16. Henry Stops a Catfight

_**002: Hey again everyone, it's me. 003 and 1136 went off on some expedition into the unknown on a dare (Yeah, I've got the first-aid kit already out), so I'm handling this one. Ah yes, looks to be we're sorting out the aftermath of the attack while mixing in a little more love triangle. *explosion* Well, that's my cue. What did you morons do this time?**_

_**003 & 1136: Nothing!**_

Jacob's POV

Chiron's death had hit us all hard, but eventually we'd settled down to take stock. The dead outnumbered the living, and many more were injured. A lot of cabins had been wiped out entirely, so were a lot of the Minor god cabins. Peleus the guard dragon was dead, and Argus was blind in more than a couple eyes. The strawberry fields were torched, a lot of the cabins weren't there anymore, the sword arena was trashed, and the Big House was a lot smaller now. Instead of casualties, we were just figuring out who was still alive.

Henry, the surfer son of Poseidon who never wore a shirt, was still alive. His usually stupid grin was replaced by a look of sad confusion. Will, son of Hermes, was the oldest surviving camper, but he didn't seem to mind that I had taken charge in this whole mess. Roxanne and two of her siblings had come out okay, but their head counselor Grind was dead. Roxanne had become the new head counselor for Ares, a title she'd deserved when three years ago when she was ten.

Han had by some miracle pulled through, but he was pretty badly injured. He wouldn't be fighting for a while, and a naiad who had pulled through the battle with some lesser injuries would be looking after him. Lucky. Alex was alive, of course. She was just too stubborn to die. James was the only surviving son of Apollo. His twin brother and big sister had bit the bullet. Tony and Rick, the sons of Zeus, were both alive. Mariah and Alia were two the only two of Artemis's Hunters that were still alive, but Alia was injured beyond fighting ability and with Han in the infirmary.

We totaled at fourteen people, only twelve of whom could still fight. Then there was my parents, Alex's parents, Clarisse the daughter of Ares, and Travis the son of Hermes. If we were very lucky, the gods had slept with some mortals recently. If they had, reinforcements would be here in ten to thirteen years. I'm pretty sure it goes without saying we don't have thirteen years to wait.

Reconstruction was our first goal, but first we'd have to clean up a bit. An _en mase _funeral for all the fallen, getting rid of wrecked cabins and salvaging what we could to rebuild. Fighting a war against an unstoppable force that was supposedly coming for us? That was pretty low on our list of priorities. But fixing this mess was wasn't _my _top priority, it was more of a close second. The top of my list was figuring out what was going on with Rae and Alex. They avoided each other whenever possible, were at each other's throats when they couldn't, and insisted on not talking about it.

Alex would keep denying that there was any problem.

"I don't like a mortal hanging around the one place where we go to get away from them," was her excuse.

Rae would just roll her eyes and ask, "Really? You can't tell?"

What the heck did that mean? I could tell Rae liked me, I'm not that clueless. But of course, every time I thought that when Miz was in sword form, I would hear him chuckle and he'd say _Yes you are._ What was I missing? I mean seriously, what? The issue kept popping up, from minute one when we needed to figure out where to let Rae sleep.

"You can stay with me and Alex," I offered to her.

"Absolutely not," Alex said.

Rae and I both looked at her, wondering what had gotten her so worked up. "Why not?" I asked. "She doesn't have a godly parent, and she's the daughter of a demigod."

"There is no way in Hades she's staying in our cabin," Alex insisted. "Let Will take her. Hermes takes newcomers."

"That _would _be a good idea," I agreed sarcastically. "Except the Hermes cabin is destroyed. Remember?"

"We wouldn't be having this discussion if we had just sent her off like I suggested," Alex said with a groan. Rae folded her arms and blew a strand of hair out of her face, clearly expecting this to take a while. This was the third time we were having this argument, and we weren't bringing up any new points or fresh perspectives. We just kept butting heads.

"Oh you mean send her back to the streets?" I asked. I couldn't believe Alex was suggesting this _again_.

"She had a home," Alex put in.

"Alex, she's the first mortal I've ever met who didn't hate me because I'm not like them," I said. "Can't we at least just give her the benefit of the doubt and maybe show a little compassion?"

"I'll show compassion," Alex assured me in a huff. "I'll show compassion by not using a gale force wind to send her back to the city the entertaining way. But only if she does _not_ stay in my cabin."

"Standing right here," Rae said, but I waved her off dismissively. True, on the surface I was arguing for her, but somehow this argument had changed direction. I just knew this wasn't about Rae. I just didn't know what it was about.

"It's my cabin too," I told her. "And we're co counselors."

"Excuse me," Mariah put in. "The Artemis cabin survived the attack. I'd be happy to let her stay with me. I get lonely with Alia in the infirmary anyway."

"Fine by me," Alex said. "I'm gonna go check on Han in the infirmary."

Rae watched her go, shaking her head. "She really doesn't like me, does she?"

It was two days after the attack, it was a slow day, and I was just wandering around when Henry walked up to me and put a wary hand on my shoulder. "Uh…Jacob, you might wanna get over to the amphitheater. Rae and Alex are talking again and if someone doesn't separate them I'm going to have to start selling tickets."

"Oh boy…" I groaned, heading over there.

When I got there, Alex and Rae were "talking" alright. I probably should've interrupted then and there, but something compelled me to sit and watch. I had to figure out what was going on with these two, why they hated each other. And since they wouldn't tell me, I was going to have to find out on my own.

"Why do hate me so much?" Rae asked. "I mean really, I'm a likable person."

"Oh, of course you are," Alex said. In a sarcastic, sing song voice, she said, "Oh, look at me, I'm so pretty and happy and everybody loves me. I think I'm going to throw myself at a guy just because he saved my life and because I could never get a date with anyone else."

"I am not throwing myself at him," Rae said, offended. "Yes, I'm flirting with Jacob. I don't see him complaining though. I thought you guys were 'just friends'. You're sounding real territorial for just friends."

"Listen," Alex said, a few stray sparks flickering from her fingertips. "I have been watching Jacob's back his entire life. He has a hard enough time taking care of himself, he doesn't need watching out for you added to his chore list."

"So you're saying you saw him first?" Rae asked. There was a brief crackle of electricity across Alex's arm as her powers reacted to her anger. My body tensed, but I couldn't bring myself to put a stop to this.

"I'm saying you and Jacob could only end badly," Alex said. "He's going to try to protect, or get distracted in the middle of a fight, and if that happens, he dies."

"What if it's what Jacob wants?" Rae asked. "What if he likes me too? What then?"

Alex's hands clenched into fists, and Rae flinched ever so slightly. But miraculously, Alex maintained her cool. "If you think you can make him happy, then go on ahead. Gods know he needs it after this. But remember this. If he dies or gets hurt because of you, you're next."

"Why don't you just say what this is really about?" Rae asked impatiently.

"What?" Alex asked.

Rae sighed. "Alex, if you like him, make a move. Or someone else will."

"I will 'make a move' when I know it won't endanger his life," Alex said. "A girlfriend would do nothing but distract him and cloud his judgement. I have to sense to see that, but you obviously don't."

"You sure you're not just scared?" Rae challenged.

I finally managed to collect my wits enough to walk up to them. "Everything l alright here you two?"'

Alex fold her arms, huffed, and glared at Rae. But then she lied and said, "Everything's fine. Rea and I were just talking."

Rae raised her eyebrow and jerked her head in my direction. Alex glared and shook her head ever so slightly. If I hadn't just heard the argument, the silent talk might've confused me. But since I had, it all made perfect sense to me. Rae shrugged as if to say, _You had your chance._ Then she gave a smile and said, "Yeah, everything's fine. Well, as fine as things can be with me and her sharing the same space. How about you, everything okay?"

I could've accused them of lying, but it wasn't worth it. "Pretty much. Slow day today anyway."

"Slow day huh?" Rae asked. "I don't suppose you could give me a tour of this place. So far I've confined myself to the cabins and the mess hall, I'm not one for wandering and getting lost."

"Yeah sure," I said. Alex's mouth dropped open just a little bit. "I'll show you around. What's left of this place anyway."

Rae held out her hand, and I took it, showing her around the whole camp. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but that didn't mean I wasn't enjoying myself. When we got to the fireworks beach, she stopped and just stared out at the ocean with a smile on her face. The sun was low, not quite setting but almost. It cast its reflection far across the waters, making them glow and shimmer. It was a rare view that only happened in this time of year and for a few minutes. But the effect? Totally worth it.

"Wow," she said. "It's beautiful."

She stepped in closer and rested her head on my shoulders, and we both stood there enjoying the view. A cold breeze blew through, and she shivered. I wrapped an arm around her to keep her warm, and she smiled even more. I'd never felt more at home in Camp Half-Blood until now. I admit, with Rae everything just felt so easy and simple. It felt natural. I thought about everything I'd overheard between her and Alex.

Was Alex right? Would having a girlfriend really do nothing but get me killed? Then again, what did it matter? Rae liked me, that much was obvious. I would be lying if I said some part of me didn't return the feelings. Something in me was screaming that this was wrong, that if I had to be with someone it shouldn't be Rae.

But then I thought back to when camp was under attack, and I was too stunned to do anything but sulk. It had been Rae who'd pulled me out of that, made me believe in myself. She was the only mortal who didn't think I was a menace. She also wasn't very hard to look at. I felt so strong and confident when I was with her…

My body took over and suddenly we were kissing again. To say I was new at this kind of thing was putting it lightly, but Rae didn't seem to mind. My arms snaked around her waist and hers wrapped around my neck. I lost track of time, but eventually we pulled apart.

"So, does this mean what I hope it means?" Rae asked hopefully.

"Yeah," I said, finally giving in, "it does."

And then I kissed my girlfriend again.

_**003: Gasp! Jacae exists is…is…together? How can this be? For the record, I made this decision as I was writing it. I have things planned for poor old Jake, and now this diabolical twist is one of them! Jalex fans don't worry, all hope is not lost. Alex and Jacob will have their own time for bonding. Right after the chapter where we show Alex's POV of what just happened.**_

_**And by the way, casualties are climbing. If you want your favorite character to survive, you may want to vote on the poll on my profile.**_


	17. Alex Denies the Truth

_**Okay, time for some good old fashioned jealousy. I must admit I'm a bit nervous writing this one, but the show must go on if only because I feel bad about how slowly I updated during school. I need to finish this series already, I've got other (And self-owned) stories to write. Not that I don't enjoy writing this, but I'd enjoy it more if I could make some cash off of it. Enough of my ramblings, time to rewind time a bit, switch POVs and add some previously backstage content.**_

Alex's POV

It was two days after the attack, Han was finally moving (and flirting with the naiad who'd been taking care of him), and work on repairing camp was taking a backseat to relaxing and recovering. Well, for most people anyway. Rae and I on the other hand, were at each other's throats. Well, not literally, at least for the moment. However, throttling that girl was becoming a fantasy of mine, right up there with…uh, nevermind. Bottom line, we didn't get along too well, especially if we were left alone. How we ended up alone in the amphitheater, I don't remember. I do remember how horrible that conversation ended.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Rae finally asked.

Why did I hate her? I hated Evan because he was a sadistic jerk, I hated Urunos because he was taking everything I'd ever cared about from me, and I hated the mortals because they hated me and blamed me for their problems whenever I tried to help. Rae though, she was in a different kind of hate. I didn't want to kill her (usually), it was a different kind of hate.

"I mean really, I'm a likable person," she said.

Okay, that did it. I hated it when people acted all happy go lucky, bounced around without a care in the world, and then figured everyone would like them. Most people did like them, but it only got on my nerves. And I was not going to put up with it, especially from a mortal.

"Oh, of course you are," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh, look at me, I'm so pretty and happy and everybody loves me. I think I'm going to throw myself at a guy just because he saved my life and because I could never get a date with anyone else."

I just threw in that last part before I could even stop it. But I meant it. I'd kept that distance between me and Jacob because it could only get in the way of everything we dealt with in our lives. The self-control I had to use, and the sacrifices I'd had to make, because I didn't want either of us getting hurt. And then this girl shows up and just throws self-control and "just friends" to the wind, and she's all over him. I guess, in a twisted way, I envied her ability to go after Jacob in a way I just couldn't.

"I am not throwing myself at him," Rae said, offended. "Yes, I'm flirting with Jacob. I don't see him complaining though. I thought you guys were 'just friends'. You're sounding real territorial for just friends."

I would like to clear the record that I was not being territorial, I was looking after Jacob. What happens if in the middle of a fight he thinks of her and loses focus? That will result, invariably, in death. Or what if he has to choose between saving her and saving thousands or even millions of people? Attachment clouds judgment, and when the fate of the world is on his shoulders he can't let emotions stop him from making the right choice.

"Listen," I said as controlled as I possibly could. I could feel the fury building up. A few stray sparks danced across my fingertips, and I briefly entertained the idea that if I controlled it just right, I could zap her without killing her. "I have been watching Jacob's back his entire life. He has a hard enough time taking care of himself, he doesn't need watching out for you added to his chore list."

"So you're saying you saw him first?" Rae asked. A cold chill ran up my spine, and there was a brief crackle of electricity across my arm before the chill vanished and I got my powers under control. That outburst scared me, but I brought it and my fury under control as I said, ""I'm saying you and Jacob could only end badly. He's going to try to protect you, or get distracted in the middle of a fight, and if that happens, he dies."

"What if it's what Jacob wants?" Rae asked. "What if he likes me too? What then?"

_Just shut her up. _I heard myself think. _It wouldn't take much, it would be easy…_My fists actually clenched, and I almost drew it back before I came to my senses. Did I really need to hit her and get in another argument with Jacob? No, she wasn't worth that.

_Who cares? _

That thought scared me even more, and the chill along my spine came back. Those weren't my thoughts, were they? This wasn't about my personal feelings about Rae, this was about Jacob. You know, keeping Jacob safe. Not like- ugh, why does everyone always think…nevermind!

"If you think you can make him happy, then go on ahead. Gods know he needs it after this. But remember this. If he dies or gets hurt because of you, you're next," I promised her, and I meant it. I also figured Jacob didn't want any distractions either. I figured, hoped, he wouldn't want to be with Rae.

"Why don't you just say what this is really about?" Rae asked impatiently.

"What?"

"Alex, if you like him," she advised, "make a move. Or someone else will."

"I will 'make a move' when I know it won't endanger his life," I told her, then realized what I'd said. But Hades, I didn't care. Jacob wasn't here, he wasn't hearing me admit I wanted to make a move. And Rae needed to be set straight. "A girlfriend would just distract him and cloud his judgment. I have the sense to see that, but you obviously don't."

"You sure you're not just scared?"

_She needs to learn when to shut up_, the voice in my head said as chills were sent across my body. For the first time since I'd started hearing it, the voice and I agreed. I could feel my hand going to my necklace as I already aimed where I would stab. Then I heard Jacob's voice, and suddenly the chill was gone and I was shocked that I'd almost tried to kill Rae and no one even knew.

"Everything alright you two?" he asked.

I lied and told him everything was fine. Rae tried to tell me silently to make a move, but I stubbornly shook my head. Not happening. She shrugged, as if to say, _Oh well, I tried. _And then she asked Jacob for a tour of camp. He actually agreed to it, taking her hand and leading her off. I wasn't about to let them just sneak off so easily though, so I followed them. I was not about to let Rae scramble Jacob's head. He showed her around, their hands never once coming apart.

She laughed at his jokes, he smiled and answered all her questions, and everything was normal and friendly. Until the fireworks beach. They'd got there just before the sun started to set and its light reflected across the water. It was a sight to behold. Rae rested her head on Jacob, and they stood there watching the sun set on the beach. Corny, but apparently effective. They kissed, her arms around his neck and his around her waist. My mind flashed back to Jacob's birthday, how close we'd been.

They broke apart, said something to each other, and resumed kissing. Thunder rumbled in response to my emotions and they broke apart from the scare of the noise. I tried to bring my powers under control, but it only seemed to make it worse and a bolt of black lighting flashed across the sky. Rae flinched, and Jacob looked around, no doubt for me. I shadow traveled out of sight, outraged. Jacob and Rae…I wasn't even going to think about it. But that voice in my head had other plans.

Accompanied by a shiver of cold in my body, I heard it say _This isn't over. _

_**Did anyone notice the cold that went with the voice in Alex's head? Yup, foresight. That's what they don't pay me for. What's next in the fight against Urunos? What or who is that voice in Alex's head? How CAN they fight a war with fourteen odd campers? Tune in next time to learn the answer to ONE of those questions.**_


	18. Zeus Will Never Retreat

_**Well, time to see what people are trying to do to stop Urunos. Well not people so much as gods. I just love writing them, and I just had to see their reaction to Artemis's disappearance. Yes, disappearance. She's not dead, if only because you can't kill an immortal.**_

Apollo slung the quiver on his back gave his bow and inspection to make sure it was in good condition. A knife appeared in his hand, and he gave it a look over before sheathing it on his hip. He felt like Ares, messing with his weapons like this. But he was going to need weapons for what he was planning.

"What do you think you're doing?" Athena asked, arms folded and looking annoyed.

"What do you think?" Apollo said. "I'm going to find Urunos, and then I'm going to put an arrow in his head."

"Alone?" Athena asked. "Not the wisest choice."

"Don't start with me," Apollo warned. "My sister is missing. I'm going after the one responsible."

"And what would she say to you if she knew you were doing this?" Athena asked. "Hm? You think she'd want you to tackle this alone?"

"Do I even have a choice?" Apollo asked. "If I don't go, who will?"

"Just give me time, I can get everyone on board with this," Athena said. "You don't stand a chance alone. Even you can see that."

"I'm not going to wait while everybody argues," Apollo said. "Urunos needs to pay."

"None of us have ever fought him before," Athena reminded him. "You're going in blind."

"I'll take my chances," Apollo said.

"Not alone you won't twerp," a gruff voice said.

Ares strode up, spear in one hand and a shotgun on his back. Classic, modern, there was no real distinction with Ares. If it was a weapon, he had it. Well, except of course for those new-fangled "non-lethal" weapons the mortals kept coming up with.

"You've got to be kidding me," Apollo said. "Why would you help me?"

"I'm not helping you, I'm going for the fight. Can't get much better a fight than the Lord of the Heavens, can it?" Ares explained. "Besides, I kinda miss Artemis. She was the only one who could get you to shut up."

"Uh-huh…" Apollo said. "Thanks, I think. Tag along if you want, just don't get in my way."

"That's usually my line," Ares noted with a rough smile and a grunt. "I'm liking this whole angry thing you've got. You should stick with it."

"See?" Athena put in. "If _Ares _is willing to help there's no way anyone else wouldn't want to."

"Dionysus might be too lazy to help," Apollo said.

"He'll do anything to get his sentence shortened," Athena said. "Any other concerns?"

"Hades-"

"Has his own personal grudge with Urunos," Athena finished. "Trying to possess the God of the Underworld's granddaughter is not something that gets you in his good graces."

Apollo finally gave in. "How long before you can get the others to agree? Because I won't wait long."

"It shouldn't take too long," Athena said. "The one I might have a problem with is Poseidon. He's probably off somewhere under the ocean being a completely numbskull."

"That is _so _like you to think that," a voice said.

The God of the Sea walked in, joining the small group. He gave a nod to Ares and Apollo, and Ares responded by giving him the bird. Athena glared at Poseidon as well.

"For the record, I was trying to figure out where to set up a new armory. The Cyclops are already overflowing the old one," Poseidon explained. "But it can wait. If we're going after Urunos, you know I'm in."

"And what's your beef with him Barnacle Beard?" Ares asked skeptically.

"Try the fact that he wants us all obliterated," Poseidon told him. "And that should be enough to convince everyone else as well."

"How long will that take?" Apollo asked impatiently.

"Not long," Athena assured.

True to her word, the Goddess of Wisdom had rallied the othewrs to fight easily and quickly. Every god or goddess was of course invested in the fight for self-preservation, but others had more personally scores to settle.

Demeter and Aphrodite had lost all of their demigod children in the attack and had taken it hard. Dionysus just wanted his sentence shortened. Athena, who'd always gotten along great with Artemis, was out to avenge a friend. Urunos's possession of so many half-bloods (including a few of his own children) had struck too close to what had happened with Luke for Hermes, and he was pissed.

Hephaestus was dying to test out his new flamethrowing-battle axe (Ares was drooling when he saw the thing.), Hera was mortified at the attack on her family and was willing to do whatever it took to preserve it. But others, like Poseidon, were just very offended that Urunos wanted them gone. As in, offended enough to stab Urunos until he was dust in the wind.

They'd decided on the place to fight. Urunos, carving a path of destruction on his way to Olympus, was going to have to run into them eventually, in the Appalachian Mountains. He was close, they could see him even from farther out.

It was the true Urunos. Not a poor possessed host. He was just as he had been when the Pit had contained him two years ago. He was dressed in armor of a design clearly older than even that of Ancient Greece. In his hand he dragged a two handed sword with one hand. It was dull colored, Primordial Lead, like his armor. His hair was grey and unkempt, falling over his blank, black eyes. Over his mouth was a cross between a surgical mask and muzzle. His skin was a hideous patchwork, some patches were old, grey and wrinkled, while others seemed so full of life they had to be the skin of a newborn. The patches were of every color and age, held together with fray black stitches.

Apollo notched an arrow, and the tip burst into flame as the string of the bow was pulled all the way back. The other gods readied their various weapons, prepared to fight. Apollo waited as his target came closer, and closer, and closer…

The flaming arrow went flying, and hit Urunos dead in the chest. He looked down at it and then ripped it out as if it were a splinter. Apollo notched another arrow and aimed. "When I shoot, move in," he told the others. As soon as he released the arrow, the others surged forward.

Ares was leading the charge riding his Harley and brandishing a spear. Urunos held his sword ready as the War God charged. Ares stabbed, but Urunos grabbed the spear with one hand and slashed the front tire off the bike with his sword.

Ares tumbled across the ground as Hephaestus stepped forward and swung his axe. Urunos blocked with his sword, only for flames to spurt into his face from Hephaestus's axe. Urunos stumbled back, his face ablaze. Hephaestus raised his axe in sync with Dionysus who raised a sword, but before either could deliver a blow a wave of force sent them both flying back and the flames on Urunos's face were extinguished.

Urunos brought his sword back to stab Dionysus, but instead had to turn to parry a spear thrust from Athena. Her surprise attack having failed, she took a step back and raised her shield. Urunos let loose with a fireball, which she easily blocked with the shield. But while she was still behind the shield, Urunos shot forward with impossible speed and slammed hard enough into Athena to send her flying backward.

Hermes came up, twin swords gleaming. Urunos swung his own weapon with blinding speed, parrying both of Hermes' slashes and then countering with one of his own followed by a kick. Hermes fell to the ground with a grunt, and Demeter lunged in with a spear. Urunos sidestepped and with a fireball sent her staggering backward.

Ares jumped forward, now wielding a massive six foot long sword. Urunos spun in time to block, and the two began a fierce duel. Ares' sword clashed against Urunos's , and suddenly the lead weapon went limp and wrapped around Ares' own sword.

Urunos took a step back, his sword clearly a whip now and wrapped tightly around Ares' sword. The War God's eyes widened just before Urunos yanked the weapon out of Ares' hands.

Urunos's whip stiffened back into a sword, and he moved forward. Just as Ares got a sword into his hands, he felt the sensation a sword going through his trunk. He gasped and looked down where the sword had penetrated. Gold blood flowed from the wound.

But Urunos underestimated Ares' resilience. The Olympian drew a knife and cut a deep gash in Urunos's throat. Instead of golden blood though, gold dust poured out of the wound, as if Ares had cut open a sandbag. Black threads crisscrossed the wound and quickly pulled it shut, stopping the loss of golden dust.

Ares was blown back by a telekinetic attack and he crashed into the side of a mountain with earth shaking force. Hermes attacked again, with enough speed to briefly force Urunos on defense. But then Urunos planted his palm on Hermes' chest and black, inky clouds quickly spread across the Messenger God. Before he could break free, he was encased and immobilized.

A spear point jutted out from Urunos's chest, and he turned to see Athena looking as angry and fierce as could be. He just jerked hard, tearing the weapon (still impaled in his body) from her hands. He sliced with his own weapon, and Athena fell with a golden cut on her cheek. But she was still smiling. Urunos grunted and realized too late what he'd fallen for.

The spear he'd been skewered with exploded, sending gold dust spewing out of his body and causing him to collapse to his knees. Still, the threads quickly pulled the huge open wounds shut and stopped the outpour of golden dust that seemed to replace Urunos's ichor.

Athena cursed in Ancient Greek and kicked out, sending Urunos stumbling into Hera's sword. The Queen of the Gods gave a yell and stabbed into Urunos's gut, causing more gold dust to flow. Urunos grabbed her wrists, and she cried out in pain when he burnt her wrists.

But then, a trio of arrows embedded themselves in his shoulder, and Urunos tossed Hera aside and pulled her sword out of his stomach before tossing it aside and raising his own. Apollo notched another arrow, his face a slate of anger.

"Bring it," the Sun God challenged.

Urunos charged forward, but Apollo managed to evade and fire off several more arrows into Urunos's back. Urunos ground to a halt and spun to face Apollo, who had already let another arrow fly. The sonic arrow detonated in Urunos's face, and he collapsed with his hands clasping his ears.

Apollo moved forward and slashed with his knife, giving Urunos a gash on the forehead. Urunos looked up at Apollo and roared in anger, and twin beams of black energy shot from his eye sockets. They struck Apollo, and at first nothing happened. Then, the glow that seemed to radiate off of Apollo faded away, and he collapsed with a gasp.

A lightning bolt struck Urunos dead in the chest, and he turned to see Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades standing together with weapons ready with Poseidon to the right, Hades the left, and Zeus standing confidently in the middle.

They gave each other an understanding nod as their minds flashed back to all those years ago when they'd first overthrown Kronos. There had been no rivalries, no bitter feelings. It had been three brothers fighting for survival, and so it was now. Nothing had brought ever brought them close quite the way a shared enemy did.

Poseidon stabbed with the trident, and soon he was lifting an impaled Urunos off of his feet. Zeus lifted his arms up before dropping them down hard, and several lightning bolts crashed down from the sky onto Urunos. As the electric onslaught continued, he turned to Hades and shouted, "Now!"

Hades slashed at the still raised Urunos like he was a piñata, cutting a deep gash in Urunos's leg. He roared in pain and golden dust flowed straight from the wound into Hades' sword. It continued to flow into the Stygian iron until the swing finished its arc and the wound finally closed up.

Poseidon slammed Urunos's body down, shaking the earth as he did. He ripped the trident free of Uruno's torso before stabbing down again. But this time the trident never struck. It stopped, caught by an unseen hand. In a brief moment of panic, Poseidon switched tactics and instead let a torrent of water pour out from the trident.

It crashed against Urunos, making him lose his focus and release his telekinetic grip on the trident. Poseidon froze the water, trapping Urunos to the ground.

Hades took a step forward to try and stab Urunos in the face, but a sudden wave of force shattered the ice and sent two thirds of the Big Three flying. Zeus watched his brothers hit the ground, and then fired off blast after blast.

Urunos was forced back a half step with each lightning bolt hit, but he seemed undaunted. Hades groaned and got to his feet, as did Poseidon. Poseidon joined his brother, adding a rush of water to the attack against Urunos. Hades' eyes turned completely black and a blast of black energy shot from his sword as his helm seemed to become even darker black.

The three combined forces pushed Urunos back like he was a twig being carried by the current of a river. He soon fell to his knees, trying to withstand the combined power of the Big Three. But then, the balance shifted. A black hole opened up in Urunos's chest, and the lightning, water, and pure fear from the three gods was sucked in.

Then, the same energies shot back out at them. They were blast back, dazed. Zeus pushed himself up onto his hands and knees as he drew the master bolt. It began crackling and glowing, and soon it was fully charged and ready to fire.

"Stand back," Zeus instructed his brothers as he got to his feet. It was very likely he was about to level the mountain they were on, but it had to be done. The King of the Gods hurled the bolt, and the electric explosion blinded everyone.

The top of the mountain they were on _had _been sheered off, but Urunos still stood, his shoulders sagging and a sound akin to ragged breathing coming from him. But he was still standing. Zeus looked up, having been knocked to the ground by the blast. It wasn't possible, it just wasn't.

Urunos raised a hand and a column of flame rushed out. Zeus raised a hand in a vain attempt to shield himself, but it wasn't necessary. A protective wall of water was blocking the flames. Zeus's head turned to Poseidon, who was struggling to keep the barrier up.

Through the water, Zeus and Poseidon watched as Urunos defended himself with one hand form the other gods with little effort. He was healing more quickly than they could inflict injury on him, and he seemed to feel no pain.

Ares came forward, and was parried before being nearly amputated at the shoulder by a well-timed strike from Urunos. Hephaestus, Athena, even Aphrodite tried to attack, but each was defeated by either Urunos's skill with the sword or his irresistible power. And all this while he still kept a stream of fire burning against Poseidon's wall of water with his other hand.

"What does it take to beat this monster?" Poseidon asked.

"I don't know," Zeus said as the master bolt shaped into a crackling sword of electricity. "But I'm hoping it's a ton of voltage to the face."

Zeus jumped over the wall of water and used a gust of wind to put Urunos off balance before scoring several hits with his bolt/sword. Sparks flew and thunder rumbled, and a few lightning strike connected in sync with the sword shaped master bolt.

But Urunos finally managed to block, and then the fight shifted. Soon it was Zeus who was staggering backward with shredded armor and ichor flowing. Poseidon tried to stab out, but Urunos batted aside the stab with his bare hand and then used a telekinetic push to send the Sea god flying.

The fight went on like that for…too long. The combatants certainly didn't know. Hours, days, weeks? It was a long time of injury and little rest. The mountain the fight had started on was gone, and now several of the Appalachian Mountains bore the scars of an all out battle against Urunos.

A _losing _battle against Urunos.

Athena stabbed Urunos to get his attention, and it worked. As she slowly backed away with Urunos stepping forward after her, Zeus managed to get back to his feet and help Poseidon up.

"Ugh…what happ—" Poseidon stopped when he saw Athena staring down Urunos alone. "Athena !"

He ran forward and swung his trident, hitting Urunos in the back of the head. Urunos turned again, and Athena gave Poseidon a glare before using her own weapon to hit him behind the head. Urunos looked between the two gods who both insisted on keeping his attention. Unable to decide which to impale, he lifted Athena up in a telekinetic grip and hurled her into Poseidon.

They tumbled in a tangle of arms and legs across the scarred mountain top, yelling at each other all the way. Hermes was carrying an injured Aphrodite away from the action with Apollo firing arrows at Urunos to cover them.

Urunos tried to roast Apollo with a blast of fire, but a gust of wind swept the flames aside. Urunos turned to see Zeus with his arm outstretched. He grunted and turned to face the God of the Sky, who stood grim faced and ready to fight. Hades was helping a limping Hephaestus whose leg brace had broken.

The gods were, whether they accepted it or not, in retreat. Only Zeus remained, his body crackling with raw power. Urunos grunted and raised his Primordial Lead sword. Zeus raised the master bolt. And then the irresistible force met the immovable object.

_**Whew, I'm going to stop because this fight is nothing but a drag out. Basically, it was long, it was brutally, and the gods are losing. Zeus is still fighting, good for him. But the others…Athena calls it strategic retreat.**_

_**Next up, the Olympians try to formulate a new plan, and the result is one that they never thought they'd consider. It starts with a K.**_


	19. Percy is Summoned

_**Oh, it's you guys again. Well, yeah I suppose I should mention I'm on a plane write now. On it. Not in it. After you get used to the wind and lack of oxygen, it's really not so bad…what? I couldn't afford a ticket. **_

_**Despite my best efforts, this chapter ended up a filler. For that, I'm very sorry. Maybe 'll post again today to make up for it.**_

"Well that could've gone better," Hermes said.

"I told you, I can still fight!" Ares complained to Apollo.

"Will you just shut up and let me finish reattaching your legs?" the God of Medicine yelled.

Ares huffed, but allowed Apollo to continue his work. Minus Zeus and Artemis, the gods were gathered on Olympus trying to determine what to do now. Far out in the mountains, a storm raged as Zeus and Urunos continued their fight. The King of the Gods was slowing Urunos down, but it was inevitable that Urunos would show up at Olympus's front door soon enough.

"So Athena?" Aphrodite asked. "You were quiet the whole way back. Tell me you've got an idea somewhere in that brain of yours."

"Well, yes…" she said hesitantly. "But you won't like it."

"As long as it involve us losing again, I'm all for it," Poseidon said.

"Who's the one person who defeated Urunos?" Athena prompted. There was a universal look of shock and disbelief amongst the others. Poseidon's jaw slackened for a moment for he got a hold on his senses again.

"On second thought, I always hated your plans," Poseidon said. "All in favor for another full frontal assault?"

"Think about it," Athena said. "He beat Urunos before, he can do it again. He might even want to."

"What he wants," Poseidon said, "and what Urunos wants are very similar. Even if we go to Kronos, he's going to take convincing."

"Already figured that," Athena said. "And I already have a solution."

"I won't like it will I?" Poseidon guessed.

"Now why would I come up with a plan you like?" she teased, then addressed the others. "What's the best way to kiss up to someone?"

"Not blow them to bits?" Ares guessed.

"Deliver some good news?" Hermes asked.

"Sleep with them?" Aphrodite said.

"No, no, and _no_," Athena said, giving Aphrodite a disgusted look. "You grovel. And who better to grovel to Kronos, than the half-blood who defeated him?"

"No," Poseidon said instantly. "Absolutely not. Percy spent his entire life trying to put Kronos back in Tartarus. And now you _dare_ to propose we get him to help us bring him back? I won't stand for it."

"We don't have much choice," Hera said. "Kronos could be our only hope for victory."

"Try to drag Percy into this, and you will get no help from me," Poseidon threatened.

"Why don't we ask what Percy thinks before we decide whether or not he gets dragged into this?" a voice suggested. All heads turned to Hestia, sitting off by the hearth. "Just saying, it's probably a good idea."

"She…has a point," Hermes said. "I'll run the message. He's headed back for Camp Half-Blood right? What's left of it I mean."

"Along with Nico," Hades said. "Tell him I said hello."

"Tell Percy the bad news, say hi to Nico," Hermes noted. "Anything else anyone? Anyone?"

"Oh!" Aphrodite said. "Tell Jacob—"

"Leaving now!" Hermes announced, and in a flash he was gone.

Out of curiosity, Hera turned to Aphrodite. "What did you want to tell Jacob anyway?"

"Oh, nothing," the love goddess said with a smile. "Nothing at all…"

Percy and Nico stood at the top of Half-Blood hill, staring out at all the devastation. Percy shook his head in disbelief and Nico bit his lip, unsure how to take this.

"Glad I left Annabeth at home for this one," Percy said.

"No kidding," Nico agreed. "Thalia gets all teary-eyed every time we pass her tree. If she saw this…and you know they'd blame themselves for not being here."

"And we're not?" Percy asked.

"Of course I am," Nico said. "Look at this place? How can you not look and think 'I could've stopped this'?"

"This isn't even the end of it all," Percy said gravely. "Urunos is coming, and I don't know if we can stop him."

"What a coincidence," a voice said from behind them. The two senior demigods turned to see Hermes, messenger of Olympus, standing casually behind them.

"Why do I get the feeling this isn't good news?" Nico groaned.

"It's wartime Nico," Hermes reminded. "The only good news in wartime is 'the war's over'."

"So, what's the bad news then?" Percy asked.

"First, we tried to stop Urunos from advancing any farther," Hermes reported. "It didn't work."

"What do you mean, it didn't work?" Percy asked.

"Well, we went in, ready to fight," Hermes said. "We gave it our best shot but…well, one by one we either got taken out of commission or had to help someone who'd been take to escape. Zeus stayed, he's still out and still fighting. Athena is putting together a group to go back out and help him, but for now he's on his own."

"But, Athena has another, maybe better plan to beat Urunos," Hermes said.

"Well, what is it?" Percy asked.

"That's what I came here to talk to you about Percy," Hermes told him. "We need your help. We need you to convince….someone to help us."

"Who?" Percy asked.

"The one person to fight Urunos and win," Hermes hinted.

Percy stared at the messenger god in shock. Then the stare turned into a glare, and by the time Nico blinked Riptide was in Percy's hands. Hermes didn't even flinch, he'd expected this kind of reaction.

"Oh and Nico, Hades says hi," he added.

"How could you even think of working with Kronos?" Percy accused.

"How many times must I repeat myself when I say don't shoot the messenger," Hermes said. "We don't have time for this. Percy Jackson, consider yourself officially summoned to Olympus. There's a lot to talk about."

Percy turned to Nico with a silent plea. Nico nodded, "I'll make sure Jacob's okay. You go do what you do best and keep the gods in line."

"Yeah," Percy said. "Keep them in line."

_**I was really not feeling this chapter, which explains the length. Maybe because I'm too bust looking forward to writing the next chapter! Two words: Jalex comforting. I'm just DYING to write it! In fact…**_


	20. Dark Alex is Very Jealous

_**Hope this chapter makes up for last chapter. It's got a little bit of almost everything. Jalex, a little bit of Jacae (All credit for that name goes to Thread of the Maze…or theonewiththewings, depending on who she's reviewing as today. It's much better than Jae.), some action, secrets, and foresight!**_

Jacob's POV

We were working on putting the Hermes cabin back together. Aside from the roof (which had been blown to bits) most of it was in relatively large chunks. One wall was even completely intact. We got its frame back up with more than a little bit of cursing and splinters, but we got it up.

Soon the walls were coming up again, starting with the biggest one. It took the combined effort of me, Will, Han, Rae, and Alex to hold it up, but we were getting the job done.

"A little more to the left," Henry instructed, and we shuffled in that direction.

"I mean right! A little more to the right," Henry corrected himself. "Sorry, never finished first grade. Teacher turned out to be a harpy. Wait!"

We stopped moving to the right as Henry looked at the project that was eventually going to be the Hermes cabin. He shook his head and said, "You know what? Nevermind move it to the left."

We all groaned and began shifting course. We spent a good half hour like that, going side to side and closer and farther as Henry tried to remember which way was his left. Or maybe he was just pretending to be this stupid to torture us…

Nah, Henry's not smart enough for something like that.

"How hard is," Rae complained, "To figure out where this thing goes?"

"Less talking, more walking," Alex said as she struggled to keep the thing lifted.

"Can Jacob and Henry switch spots please?" Han asked, his goat legs quivering under the weight. He really shouldn't have volunteered for something like this, but then again he'd do anything to impress Serina, the naiad who'd gotten him on his hooves again.

"No way!" Henry said, "I got this! All of you, two steps to the right the three to the left!"

"Why not just one to the left?" Will asked.

"Don't question me!"

Rae and I were standing next to each other while we followed Henry's ridiculous instructions, Han was next to us and Alex and Will were on the other side. After what seemed like several hours, we finally got the roof in place and hoisted it up. While we held it firm, Henry came down and nailed it into place.

With a sigh of relief, we all let go. And then Han fainted. Alex nudged him with her foot, and he moaned. "He's alright," she assured.

"No Ma…" he moaned. "I don't wanna practice the reed pipes…"

"Well…that took longer than I thought it would," Rae said, cracking her back.

"No kidding," I agreed.

"Well come on we still got the other three walls to put up, just be glad these are in smaller pieces," Will said.

"Can't we take a break?" Rae asked.

"Much as I hate to admit, I'm with her on this one," Alex said. "Let's take five. Or ten. Or the rest of the day."

"Rest of the day sounds nice," I agreed.

Will caved in to Rae and Alex's dual puppy dog faces faster than either could have pulled off alone. "Alright, we'll pick it up tomorrow. But tomorrow, we're stopping until this place has a four walls and a roof."

"So," Rae said as she dusted herself off. "What do you want to do now?"

"I really should be headed into the city to resupply on food, we're starting to run low and," I stopped when Rae gave me her tilted head, puppy dog faced pout that could crumble the resolve of Mount Rushmore. "and…that can wait one more day."

Rae smiled at me, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Rae looked up at the far off clouds, but my gaze shot directly to Alex. Her eyes briefly flashed with a red glow, then she looked at her hands likes they weren't hers. And then she took off running.

"Rae, something's wrong," I said to her. "I'll be back."

"Don't die," Rae advised.

"Least of your worries," I told her, and sprinted off after Alex. "I hope…"

She dashed into the woods, and soon I was chasing after her. "Alex! Alex wait!"

She turned to me, her eyes flashed again with that same reddish gray glow, and then she picked up the pace. I struggled to keep her in sight, let alone keep up. Finally we hit a clearing and she just stopped and fell to her knees panting hard.

I came up behind her, breathing hard. "Alex…what's wrong."

"Jacob, stay back," Alex pleaded. She wouldn't look at me.

Naturally I did the opposite of what she told me and came closer and knelt down to her level."Alex, tell what's going on."

She turned to me, her eyes glowing…with that same color Urunos slaves glowed with. She looked at me desperately. "Jacob…run."

"Alex—"

"Don't touch me!" she yelled, and a wave of force sent me flying backward and into a tree. I got the wind knocked out of me and fell to the ground with pain lacing up and down my side.

I looked to Alex, but now, she was levitating about three feet off the ground. The glow wasn't around her in a full aura, it was still restricted to her eyes. There was another change too.

"Urunos," I seethed. Miz was in my hands less than a second later. "I'll destroy you for this."

"I am not Urunos!" Alex insisted. It was her voice. It didn't have the echo effect I'd heard on others. It was Alex's all the way. "No one can control me! Nobody!"

"Alex!" I said. "If you can still hear me, you have to fight this. This isn't you!"

Her glare of fury turned to one of confusion, then pain, and then she looked at me wistfully with her glowing eyes. "Jacob…"

But then she shook her head, and the look of anger returned. "Why should you even care?" she accused. Then a fireball came in my direction. I rolled to avoid it, but it was close.

"Alex you're my friend," I told her. "Why wouldn't I care?"

"I don't know," she said, her voice laced with resent. "Aren't you a little busy with your _girlfriend_? I know about you and Rae, I saw you two at the beach. Backstabber!"

Another fireball, and I scrambled to get clear. It missed, but if this kept up she was going to torch the woods.

"Backstabber?" I asked.

"I spend my whole life looking out for you, and then you go and run off with _her_? She's not even from our world, she's a mortal. She doesn't belong here, and she doesn't belong with you," Alex ranted.

"Alex…are you jealous?" I asked.

"Shut up!" she ordered, and I went flying backward before being pinned at the wrists and ankles by an unseen force. Miz was out of reach.

She floated down toward me, hand ablaze. She rested on foot on my chest, the other on the ground, looking down at me triumphantly. "I have had _enough_ of you two insisting I'm jealous. I'm tired of hearing it."

She aimed her flaming hand down at me, and my eyes widened. "Don't worry, I'll make sure Rae joins you real soon," she said.

"Alex!" I tried. "This isn't you! You have to fight this."

"Maybe I don't want to," she said with a laugh.

"Alex I know your still in there," I said. "Don't let Urunos do this to you. Don't let him make you into a monster!"

The confident, evil grin slowly disappeared from her face, followed by a look of confusion. Then the glow finally disappeared from her eyes, and I felt the force holding down me down disappear. Not taking any chances, I grabbed her and pulled her down while I got up.

Before she had even come to full awareness, she was on her back with me on top of her, my arms keeping hers pinned and my legs straddling her at the waist. She looked up at me like it was the first time she'd ever opened her eyes. Squinting at first, getting used to the light, and then studying me with so much interest I thought for sure she must've forgotten who she was.

She tried to move one of her hands, and my grip on that wrist tightened and pushed it harder against the ground.

"Jacob…" she said softly. "It's me. It's really me."

Slowly, cautiously, I released one wrist. When she didn't try to kill me, I released the other. I was still on top of her though, why I wasn't sure. I was…I was lost in her eyes. Electric blue like her mother's. I don't know how long we stayed like that, but I finally snapped out of my trance and let her get up to her feet.

She looked around at the scorched patches on the trees and the ground, the tree her first blast of force had snapped in half.

"I…I did all this didn't I?" she asked, dazed.

"Alex, it wasn't you," I told her. "It was—"

But she didn't wait. She broke down, threw her arms around me and just held me there, squeezing so tight I felt sure I was going to suffocate soon. Still, I returned the embrace in full. She didn't want to let go, and even I could tell she needed someone right now.

"Jacob, I'm so sorry," she apologized. "I'm _so _sorry."

"Alex, it's okay," I told her. "It wasn't you."

"It wasn't Urunos either," she said, still not letting go. "He never got full control. I wouldn't let him. But he…he found another way. He mixes himself in with all my darkest thoughts and feelings. I usually can keep him at bay but…it's _hard _Jacob. Every second of everyday I'm fighting him. Ever since I escape the Pit's hideout. There's no rest. When I sleep I dream of him. Fighting for control."

"We're going to stop him," I told her, rubbing small circles in her back to try and comfort her. "He won't control you. I won't let him do this to you."

We stood there in silence for a while, just letting her recompose herself. Never once did she even cry, not a single tear. Alex, no matter how tough things got, did not cry.

"Jacob," she said after a while. "If we can't stop him…"

"We will stop him," I insisted.

"But if you can't find a way to stop, can't stop him from taking control of me…" she said, and bit her lip. "I…I want you to kill me."

"What?" I asked in shock.

"I don't want to keep living like this, Jacob," she said, finally pulling away. "He's always trying to take over. I can feel him pushing right now. If you can't find a way to stop this…if he gets control…kill me. I'd rather die than hurt any of you."

"I can't do that," I said. "I…I won't. Can't you ask Roxanne?"

"It has to be you Jacob," she said. "Don't let him get control. The first sign of me losing it, I want you to end it. I wouldn't trust anyone else with this."

I felt her pain, her begging me to do this for her. She wasn't even asking I do it right now, just if she ever lost control. Could I do it? Could I really kill Alex for the greater good? There had to be another way, there just had to be. It couldn't end like that…her out of control and me having to put her down like a mad dog.

But I was her friend, and she needed someone to promise her this. "Alright. I won't let you hurt anyone," I said. "But I'm also going to do everything I can to set you free without killing you."

"Thank you," she said, and hugged me again. "Please don't tell anyone about this…"

"Your secret is safe," I assured her.

"I can't thank you enough Jacob," she said.

"You could be nice to Rae," I offered.

"Don't push it."

_**See, now that one I had fun writing. I think you all know what eventually will happen to Alex…nah you probably don't. Next chapter, we're going to take a look at both Olympus's and Camp Half-Blood's solution to this little Urunos problem.**_


	21. Jacob Joins a Threesome

_**Okay, writing this one by the seat of my pants so bear with me. I would've written last night but…whatever that's not important. Bottom line, this chapter may be a bit rusty.**_

_**I blame early wake-up syndrome**_

By the time we came out of the forest, Alex was her old self again. It felt good to have the real Alex back, not some evil version of her intent on killing me or a sad version who wanted me to kill her. I shuddered at the thought of that.

When we got back, we found out a war council was being held in the amphitheater to figure out our next move. Rebuilding camp was going to have to take a backseat for now.

"Well, I think it's safe to say were in no condition to take on an army," Will. The others agreed with nods, half-hearted jokes, or grunts.

There were so few campers left, everyone was at the war council. Even Rae was there, although Alex wasn't too happy about that. But like it or not Rae was staying here at least for a while and I was already teaching her how to use a sword so Alex couldn't call her useless in a fight.

She didn't keep a tight enough grip and her sword would always fly out of her hand and straight at me, but she was learning.

"So what's the plan then?" Henry asked. "Dig a cave and hide? No, we start making hit and run attacks on Urunos's army. Oh wait, what if we—"

"Henry?" Will interrupted.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up," Roxanne told him with a glare.

"Well I never!" Henry shot back, folding his arms and looking away. Alex slapped herself in the forehead, muttering something about a seaweed brained moron.

"Well you should," Roxanne advised.

"Both of you, be quiet," I said, getting annoyed. "Getting Henry to stop coming up with bad ideas isn't getting us anywhere."

"Hey!"

"Look I'm sorry," I apologized, "but they're terrible."

"Well thanks for letting me down gently guys," Henry huffed.

"Oh get over yourself," Alex said.

"Jerks…"

"Well Jacob, got any ideas in that big brain of yours?" Tony asked.

"Actually…" I said, almost ashamed. "No. I've got nothing. A whole camp full of demigods, and we could barely handle fifteen of them. An army? Not to be a downer, but if we want to stand any kind of chance it's going to take more than what we have here."

"We could go out and recruit some of the nature spirits," Han suggested. "And I'm sure there are people in Satyr Securities who could help."

"Maybe," I said.

"You get the mortals to help," Rae suggested.

We all turned to her in either stunned silence, confusion, disbelief, or a combination thereof. Then, all at once, we started laughing like she was joking. Henry gave her a slap on the back, and kept laughing, Alex actually started to cry she was laughing so hard. But, Rae didn't laugh, she just sat there giving us all a confused look.

"Wait, you're serious?" Will asked, recovering from his laughing fit.

"Yes I'm serious," Rae huffed. "Think about it. They may not be as used to fighting monsters and gods as you guys, but there's a lot of them. Mortal military is the quickest and biggest solution to the numbers problem."

"Even if I believed that," Alex said, "which I don't, how could we possibly convince the mortals to help us, when they _hate _us?"

"Not all mortals hate you," Rae protested. "I don't hate you, and I bet if we talked to the right people we could convince them to help."

"And who exactly would the 'right people' be?" Roxanne asked.

"Oh I don't know…" Rae said slyly. "A good place to start might be…the President?"

"Start at the top huh?" Tony. "Worth a shot. If we can convince him, he'll convince everyone else for us. And I gotta admit, an army of mortals with machine guns sounds like quite the rescue party."

"Quantity over quality?" I asked. "I know we're desperate but…really?"

"Unless you have a better idea," Rae offered.

Everyone turned to me, but I had nothing. I kept going over the battles against the Urunos slaves in my head. There were no weaknesses to exploit, no methods of attack to assure victory, no tactics that could be effective with the numbers we had now.

But mortal military…there were tons of them. The strategist in me couldn't help but smile at the thought of coming up with battle plans to exploit the strengths of a full sized army. Ambushes, traps, flanking maneuvers…With the numbers of the mortals there were infinite possibilities.

With fourteen battle weary half-bloods…digging a hole and hiding was actually sounding like the most effective plan we could pull off with our numbers.

"I guess we're going to see the President,"

All of us?" Will asked. "We've got one working van, and I will not be crammed in there with thirteen other people. I say we treat this like a quest, send three people, and the other eleven stay here and keep rebuilding."

"Well, who's going?" Han asked.

"Rae's idea, she goes," I suggested.

"What?" she and Alex asked at the same time.

"I can't…what?" Rae asked.

"C'mon, it was your idea," Jacob said. "And besides, your living proof mortals and half-bloods can get along. We'll need you there if we're going to be convincing."

"Okay I'll go…" she coincided. "But not without you."

"Okay, I'm great with people anyway," I said.

"Yeah…sure you are…" Henry chuckled nervously.

"Oh shut up," I shot back.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Alex said. "If _you two _are going, then I've gotta come."

"Okay, but why?" I asked.

"I'm not gonna let you two lovebirds run off on a road trip without any…severely biased supervision," Alex explained. I opened my mouth to protest, but Alex added, "Besides, neither of you can drive and I can."

"Argus could—"

"Barely walk around without running over Henry," Alex interrupted.

"The horror," Henry put in.

Alex stepped in between Rae and I and draped her arms over our shoulders. "Don't worry you two, it'll be fun! Just, you know…no PDA unless you want sparks to _really _start flying."

A brief jolt of electricity went through me and Rae, and Alex patted us on the back. "Okay, you two get ready, and I'll see you on the van."

She walked off, clearly pleased with herself. Henry and Han started laughing, Will smacked himself in the forehead, and Roxanne was shaking her head in disbelief.

"What?" I demanded angrily.

"Threesome!" Han bleated, and started cracking up again. I clicked Miz to life, aimed, and drenched Han in a blast of water. "Argh! Help! I'm drowning standing up!"

Rae giggled, and I shrank my sword back into a pen. That was when I suddenly felt a sharp pain shoot up my butt.

"Hurry up will you?" Alex called form the van far off.

Rae was rubbed her own hindquarters to try and relieve some some the pain.

"I think she's warming up to you," I said, rubbing the spot where I'd been zapped. "She only zaps the people she likes."


	22. Rae Wishes She'd Taken a Cab

_**Still writing by the seat of my pants! Question of the day: Have you ever witnessed a mouse being beaten to death?**_

Alex's POV

"Well it took you two long enough," I said as the finally showed up. Jacob was carrying two small duffel bags and a backpack, and Rae had…was that a sword? I'd heard about Jacob giving her lessons (Like he'd ever let her fight.), but I didn't think she'd gotten any good.

I sat waiting in the driver's seat, and Jacob climbed into the back. Rae was still trying to handle her sword right to get it into the van. I looked back at them, and gave Rae a skeptical look.

"Pretty big sword for some pretty small arms," I commented.

"Oh shut up," Rae said with a glare. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"You know it," I told her. I wasn't going to ignore her and watch from a distance while she and Jacob got closer and closer. Better to stay close, pester her best I can, and keep an eye on Jacob. So far, it was working out for me. For the most part.

"Ugh, do I have to bring this?" Rae asked Jacob.

"Well yeah, you could use the practice," Jacob said. "And it's not like we won't have time on the way."

"Yeah but…" Rae complained.

"Well now, if he told you to bring you definitely have to," I said. "You know what, if you ever need a sparring partner…"

"Alex." Jacob warned.

"What?" I said, feigning innocence. "I'd be gentle…"

"Liar," Rae said, finally getting the sword inside.

Jacob pulled of the backpack and put it with the other two duffel bags. "Three? That really necessary?" I asked.

"One's for me, one's for Rae, and I had to make one for you since you forgot to pack," Jacob complained. I just smiled.

"I didn't forget, I knew you would do it for me," I teased, and started the van. Before long, we were on our way. All I can say is, if you think road trips are bad, try a road trip with two ADHD kids and a girl who really needs to stop examining a sword while the student driver is working.

Take what happened after about only a half an hour on the freeway.

Rae blew a strand of hair out of her face for the fiftieth time in two minutes, keeping herself entertained. Jacob was out cold, he'd told us to wake him when we needed him. I seemed to be the only one bored out of my mind. There wasn't even anyone driving bad enough for me to curse at. That's one of the reasons I want a license!

Unable to take it anymore, I turned on the radio.

_Life is a highway_

_I wanna ride it all night long_

_If you're going—_

The music stopped abruptly when Rae turned the radio off. I glared at her and turned it back on, more to make her angry than anything else.

About a line and a half later, she shut it back off and leaned back in her seat with a challenging smirk on her face. I narrowed my eyes, accepting the challenge. I turned the radio on again. She turned it off before I was even done drawing my hand back towards the wheel.

My grip tightened on the steering wheel, and I hit the one button again. We went back and forth like that for little more than two seconds when a sword stabbed forward into the radio and Rae screamed. My first thought was that somehow we were under attack, but then I looked to the owner of the sword: Jacob.

"I can't get any sleep with you two around can I?" he accused. Suddenly his face blushed just a little and I heard him mutter "Shut it Miz."

"Who?" Rae asked.

"Jacob thinks his sword can talk," I explained. Jacob was my best friend and he was pretty trustworthy. But a talking sword? Not buying it no matter how many times he'd insisted it was true.

"He— _it _can!" he insisted.

Rae gave him a look that said _Whatever you say…_ I had to laugh. Poor Jacob, no one was ever going to believe him and his stories about talking weapons.

Or maybe the time we stopped for gas…

"Wait, do have any of us have any money?" Rae asked.

"Jacob?" I asked. He'd been the one to pack our bags. Well, mine and his anyway. He'd at the least carried Rae's.

"Who do you think you're dealing with, an Ares kid?" Jacob said with a confident smile. It was a good thing we all still sitting in the car, or that smile may have made me a little weak in the knees. He held up a wallet. "Cash or credit?"

"You're amazing," I said, taking the wallet. Rae cleared her throat oh so subtly. I turned to her and rolled my eyes. I gripped the wallet so that my pointer finger, pinky, and ring finger were behind it and my middle finger was left on the side facing Rae. Creative ways to flip people off #12: The Wallet Grip.

"Just fill up the tank," Jacob urged, clearly not in the mood to watch a catfight.

"Fine," I said, disappointed.

I hopped out of the van and went to the pump. A few seconds later I was standing there holding the gas valve open while Jacob and Rae sat inside. I didn't look, I didn't want to. But eventually the tank filled up and I had to turn around.

Jacob was in his seat, but Rae was in his lap. They weren't doing anything really but, the closeness between them… My powers flared without my approval. It was a small spark, honest. How it traveled all the way to the pump next to ours, I'll never know.

But something, maybe the fumes, caught fire. The pump began to burn a small flame, and my eyes widened. I knew what happened when gas stations caught fire.

I jumped into the driver's seat of the van, started it up with a jolt of electricity to the sparkplugs (That's right, I didn't even have time to turn the key) and backed up out of the gas station so fast Rae and Jacob flew apart. Bonus.

"What was that?" Jacob, asked, recovering from hitting his head during my reckless driving.

"Shut and get a seat belt on!" was my response as I sped away from that place.

They obeyed, even as they shouted questions at me. I ignored them. I needed to get as far away before

BOOM!

That. It's a very good thing that gas station was empty aside from us. The shockwave of the explosion was massive, and it shook the van off the ground for a second. When it reconnected with the road, we all experienced painful whiplash.

Jacob looked back at the burning area.

"Alex, what did you—"

"I had nothing to do with that!"

It wasn't all ADHD chaos. There was one…moment, when Jacob was "asleep".

"He looks so peaceful when he sleeps," Rae commented quietly.

"You should see him when he fights," I said, taking my eyes off the road to look at him in the rear view mirror. I saw the corner of his mouth twitch ever so slightly.

"I've seen it," Rae said. "He's amazing."

"Hold that thought," I told her, and jerked the wheel hard to the right. The van's tires screeched as we abruptly changed lanes, but the desired effect was achieved; Jacob hit his head hard and was knocked unconscious.

"Alex!" Rae scolded, looking worriedly at Jacob.

"He wasn't really asleep, he was just eavesdropping. Gets it from his mom," Alex said. "Now that he can't hear us, I think there's something we need to talk about."

"What?" Rae asked, confused.

"I'll give you a hint: The world's smartest blonde," I said.

Rae turned to Jacob. "Oh, right. Well, what about him?"

"I know you two are…" I felt like puking, but instead I continued with my little speech. "_together, _but—"

"I get it, you're jealous," Rae said.

"I AM NOT JEALOUS," I seethed, then realize my reaction wasn't helping sell that lie. "It doesn't matter. If you don't want to stab you, we're going to have to set up some ground rules."

"Like?" Rae asked.

"For one, you are _not _doing any of that…whatever around me, kay?" I asked. Yet another sentence not helping my non-jealous case. But at this point, I was done trying to hide it. At least from Rae.

"I think we can control ourselves," Rae said.

"Don't boss him around or make him do all your work. That's my job," I added. "As is humiliating him, bringing his over-confident butt down to earth, and letting him know when he's acting stupid."

"You really know how to let a guy know you like him, Alex," Rae said. "But fine, I think I can do that."

"And if the time comes, and he has to choose between you and the world," I said darkly. "Make sure he knows which choice to make."

Rae nodded after a brief moment of hesitation.

"I may not like it, but you're with us now," I said honestly. "We're the unsung heroes, and when worst comes to worst we have to be…selfless. I'm still wrapping my mind around that, but if I expect you to live by that just like we do. No begging for mercy, no putting your life before others, I mean it."

"Okay," Rae said.

"And for gods' sake, don't be so damn afraid whenever something tries to kill us," I added as an afterthought. "I know it's called _mortal _terror for a reason but sheesh."

"Hey!"

"Oh you know it's true. You never see half-bloods scream and run for their lives when a giant monster attacks. Nope, we jump on the nearest flying horse, save the human sacrifice, and then sink a bridge on that bad boy," I said, recounting the story of when Jacob killed that monster…to save me no less.

"I thought that was because of the ADHD," Rae said.

"Hold that thought," I said again, and slammed my foot on the brakes. Jacob's head flailed forward, and he was knocked out for the second time.

"Alex!"

"He woke up for a second there," I explained, and then kept driving.

_**I liked writing that one. It was light, it was fun, and Jacob got hurt! Woo-hoo for that. Review, and I will return the favor. If you write stories about anything I'm interested in.**_


	23. The White House is Invaded

_**Shoulda gone to freee cred-it, re-port dot COM! I coulda seen this comin' lie a big 'ol at-om bomb! ….I just HAD to. End of story. Now uh, where was I? Oh yeah, We're going to DC baby!**_

Jacob's POV

When I woke up, I had a monster headache and we were passing a sign that said welcome to Washington D.C. Rae was sound asleep, and Alex was dutifully watching the road.

"How long was I out?" I asked, rubbing my head.

"Uh…not long," Alex said after a moment.

"Right," I said, not believing her. "So, we're here."

"Well, we're in DC," Alex said. "We still have to find a way to talk to the President."

"I'm sure she's not that busy," I said. "She's just the leader of the free world."

"Don't forget the security. Trying to get through them is going to be a nightmare," Alex said. "Well, for you anyway. All I need is a dark enough corner."

"Show off," I muttered. "I guess it's up to me to come up with the plan to get us all inside?"

"See?" Alex laughed, "You are the smart one."

"A tour?" Alex asked, glaring at all the other tourists standing around us. "This is your master plan?"

"You forget all the water bottles I bought at that convenience store," I said, as if that explained everything.

"Um now that you mention that," Rae piped in, "why are we all carrying backpacks full with water bottles. Does this plan involve an extended stay in the desert?"

"Or maybe the world's smallest waterfall?" Alex guessed.

"Your both wrong," I said with a smile on my face. "Just follow my lead."

Both girls groaned and complained for a bit, but grudgingly agreed and followed. We were taking a tour of the White House, the easiest way to get _in_. But, there was still a ton of security, and this particular tour would not be headed for the one place we needed to be: the Oval Office.

Rae and Alex both had pointed out the supposed flaws in my plan. But I wasn't worried, not even in the slightest.

About halfway through the tour, I fell to the back of our group and motion for Alex and Rae to do the same. When we were behind the rest of the group, I made my move.

Water spewed from all three of our backpacks and shot forward, drenching our tour guide and all of our fellow tourists. A half a second later, they were all frozen in place.

Rae and Alex looked to me in shock, and I nodded. Part one of the plan accomplished. I ran, hoping Alex and Rae would know to follow. I found the closest air duct and sliced the cover off. It was big enough for someone to squeeze through.

"Alex, draw the guards off, but don't kill anyone," I instructed. "When you get the chance, shadow travel and meet us in the office."

"What about—" Rae started to ask.

"Rae, get crawling," I said, pointing to the duct.

"And you?" Alex asked.

"I'm with Rae," I said. "Try not to get caught."

"Please," Alex said with a roll of her eyes. "Remember who you're talking to."

I nodded, and we split up. Alex took off running, and I crawled through the ducts after Rae. We were shuffling through as fast as we could, trying to put as much distance between us and the frozen tourists as possible.

"This is all part of the plan, right?" Rae asked uncertainly.

"Have a little faith," I said, feigning hurt. "Alex keeps the guards off us long enough for us to get in, and then she meets up with us. Then, we convince the president to help us, and ride into the sunset as the heroes who saved the universe. At least, that's the outcome on paper."

"Great…" Rae muttered. After a moment, she added, "Keep your gaze on the duct."

"What?"

"Oh don't act like there isn't a reason I went in first," she accused.

I lowered my field of vision in compliance. Dang it, there went the best part of the whole plan. We finally found our way through that maze and to the vent that led to the office. A peek around though showed secret service surrounding the most powerful woman in the country.

"Styx," I cursed. "Rae, change of plans I'm going in first."

"How?" she asked. "I'm already in the front."

"Watch and be awed," I instructed with a sly smile. My body shivered slightly, and then melted into a puddle of water that collected around Rae. Slowly, I flowed forward and out through the vents, a constant flow at first, but once most of me was puddled into the office there was only a few drops of water coming out of the vents.

Bold is my middle name. Well, actually its Luke, but it should be Bold. I reformed my puddled self into flesh and bone, and every secret serviceman drew his gun and aimed…at me.

"Mrs. President," I said as calmly as possible. "We need to talk."

Alex materialized out from behind a set of curtains, panting. Half the guns pointed at me switched over to her. They gestured for her to move to stand next to me. She raised her hands in surrender and obeyed. She turned to me and glared. "Was _this _part of the plan?"

"Feel the weight in your pack?" I asked her.

"Yeah…" she said. The guns were still pointed at us.

"Then pray this works," I gulped.

The last of the water Alex and I were carrying shot from our backpacks, hitting each gun aimed at us and freezing up instantly. The secret service looked to their guns and immediately worked to try and unjam them.

"Sorry," I apologized in advance. "We're not terrorists. We just don't like guns pointed at us."

"Rae!" I called. "It's safe to come out now."

"Whoa!" she cried as she dropped down from the vent…onto Alex. The two crumpled to the floor, groaning.

"Who are you, and what is the meaning of this?" the president asked.

"It's…a long story," I said. "The short version? We're half-bloods and we need your help."

She raised an eyebrow, like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're the half-blood who sank the Golden Gate Bridge?"

I groaned. That day really was coming back to bite me in the butt. "Yes ma'am, that was me…"

"You're on the FBI's most wanted list, and the CIA," she said. "You realize that, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "And do _you _realize that a very angry, very powerful force is headed for New York with intent not only to destroy Olympus, but the entire universe?"

That shut her up. After a long pause, she folded her hands in front of her face and nodded. "I'm listening."

I exhaled, and recounted every detail I deemed necessary. I could've written a book and posted it on the internet it was such a long story. But at least the President was listening.

_**Short, I know, but I liked it myself. Yes, there is a woman president by the time Jacob is thirteen. Thus sayith the Oracle of Project Phoenix! Now that you've read, you've done half of the requested R&R. All that's left is to review.**_


	24. Mortals Run Scared

_**Today we're taking a much different approach to things. We've seen Jacob's POV. We've seen Alex's POV. We've seen Percy and Thalia and Annabeth and Nico's POV. One day, I might even throw in Miz's POV. But how about the mortal POV? More specifically, the men, women, and children who are helpless as Zeus and Urunos carve a path of destruction, headed for Manhattan.**_

_**Sorry this took til 5:30 my time to post. I was...occupied.**_

Channel 12 News

"Our top story tonight, rampant destruction blazing down across the country," the anchorman said. "A path of devastation is being carved out by persons or forces unknown tonight, in what some speculate to be the worst natural disaster in history, and others claim to be the work of Olympus."

The screen panned across a view of a completely devastated city, nothing at all left standing, no building secure no area safe. There were flood waters, small pockets of fire, people standing in front of the wreckages of their homes. As the footage of area hit played, the voice continued.

"Whatever the cause, it has left no standing structure in its wake and no survivors have yet to be found. Military forces from around the world are being pulled back in preparation to deal with this threat."

"Satellite imaging of recent has shown that a thunderstorm of the highest magnitude ever seen is accompanying the epicenter of this disaster, whether this is the work of Zeus himself or another force is unknown. We're going to our live coverage of the forefront of the disaster now."

The feed changed to one most likely from a camera news crew on the ground. The video was shaking uncontrollably, making it almost impossible to view any details. What looked like balls of fire occasionally rained down and exploded in bursts of even brighter and bigger flames. There was screaming in the background, the word "run" was caught often.

"Oh my God!" the reporter, currently not on camera, screamed. "The devastation is incomprehendible! The whole world is being torn apart in front of— Oh!"

The camera feed jostled even more, like it had been thrown or the camera man had tripped. It hit the ground, briefly flashed static, and the shot finally became stable. There was no voice form either the reporter or the camera man.

But the camera itself was now pointed to some degree at the sky, where two figures were occasionally visible through the dark and angry clouds. An eerie red glow pulsed in the clouds in sync with lightning and thunder. Fire rained down, and people were running for their lives.

Then amidst the chaos, several people dressed in battle armor and glowing with the same eerie reddish aura begin to slowly fly down, watching screaming bystanders run. Then, they shot forward, grabbing people on the shoulders.

The victims would scream for half a moment, then collapse to their knees for a bit before rising, the same glow now in their eyes and surrounding their bodies. It was like watching an infection spread through a body.

Someone tripped over the camera, and the feed went to static.

"My God…" was all the anchorman could say.

Burt Williams Show

"Look at it," the half-blood hating man said, staring out at the cloud of devastation that was slowly coming toward him and his studio. It was only a few miles out, and then he would be in the thick of it. "Look at what _their world _is causing."

"We recovered a handheld camera from one of the hit cities," one the reporters standing in his office said. "You…you may want to see this."

Burt Williams turned away from his window and looked to the screen displaying what the camera had recorded. A man, no older than thirty, was looking into the camera with terror filled eyes. He had a cut on his forehead, and blood was flowing freely from it.

"This is no ordinary storm," the man said, and the car he was riding in shook uncontrollably. An unseen person cursed in the background. "Whatever it is, it's destroying everything. And now these…these things are coming down…taking people!"

The car shook again, and the video jostled. The man hit his head on the back of the seat in front of him, leaving blood where his head had hit.

"Nothing seems to stop them," the man continued. "But I've seen something else. The man who shoots lightning, he's fighting them. But he's just one…he can't stop them all…"

Whoever it was on the video must have been severely traumatized. His eyes already seemed lost. But then, the man regained his composure long enough to get out one last message.

"Delia, if you get this, I'm so sorry," the man apologized. "Be strong for your mother. Daddy loves you very much."

Then the camera feed shook uncontrollably as something hit the car. When the video finally settled, it was pointed forward at the windshield, and at _something_ that had landed on the hood of the car. It looked vaguely human, but its skin was charcoal black with glowing red eye sockets and glowing red cracks in its skin. It let out a savage growl and lunged through the windshield into the car. The video ended after that.

"Would you like to add this into tonight's show?" the reporter asked. "The man who shoots lightning definitely sounds like a demigod."

For once, Burt Williams was silent. No wild accusations at the Olympians or their freak children, no rants about how this would _destroy _the reputation of every demigod and anything else that wasn't human. No, he remained silent, and turned back to look at the coming storm from out his window.

"No…" he finally choked out. "No let's just…stick with what we have. It should be enough."

What he didn't add was that the man in that video was Burt Williams Jr.

Diary Page, Uncovered by the Red Cross Rescue Team

Dear Diary,

I'm so scared. Mommy and Daddy are gone, and Fido is hurt. He won't walk on all four legs like he's supposed to, and he whimpers a lot. I think his leg is broken. There are monsters, and really scary people outside. They're taking people and destroying everything.

I don't want to die, not like this. I hear people screaming outside. They're trying to run, but none of them are making it. The monsters and the scary people just grabbed them and take them away.

The sky is angry. There's thunder and lightning and it is raining. I'm scared of thunder too. It makes loud noise and my heart stops every time. Other things are coming out of the sky too. Fire, and monsters and scary people.

The scary people glow and carry big swords. They don't touch the ground ever, they just float and take people. I saw one person with a gun like the kind Daddy has. He was shooting, and the thunder happening a lot more. The monsters kept falling, but then one of the scary people came and hit the man with his sword.

I'm not supposed to touch guns, Daddy says. The monsters are coming closer, I think they found me. I'm so scared. If they find me, will see Mommy and Daddy in Heaven? I really want to. I want Daddy to hug me so I won't be scared anymore.

I don't want to die.

_**Sorry there was no real plot advancement in this one, but I just had to get this out there. I gotta know, which one of those points of view struck deepest with you? They all focused on a different aspect of this. The first looked at the devastation to cities mostly, the second revealed how families were being torn apart, and the third talked about what it was like to be one of the last to die.**_

_**Oh wait, there some slight plot teasing. Let me ask you, could a mortal body really host a fragment of Urunos without experiencing some side effects? Because let me warn you, the monsters in the diary are not your basic hellhounds and telkhines.**_


	25. The Plan Unfolds

Things had been going…well so far. The security was still glaring at us, but they were doing it from their posts at the doors and around the room's perimeter, rather than huddled around the president. For a mortal, she was listening pretty well and understanding everything I told her.

"Well Jacob," she said after careful consideration. "You bring up a lot of convincing points, but it's sounding like you need our help more than we need yours."

"Why I—" Alex started to say, but I cut her off by clearing my throat. I gave her a look that said, _Don't bite the hand that feeds you._ She gave a glare to everyone in the room and folded her arms in discontent, but at least she didn't say anything else.

"What do you mean?" I asked, despite already knowing. It was time to call in whatever skills I may or may not have as a diplomat.

"What I'm saying is," the president clarified, "that while you can't fight this war on your own, who's to say that _we _can't?"

"Oh that tears it—" Alex said, and I had to not-so-gently step on her foot to keep her from doing anything rash. In this case, rash most likely being Alex holding her sword against someone's throat.

"You know the old saying knowing is half the battle?" I asked, and the president nodded. "Well, we know everything there is to know about Urunos, and you've got nothing."

"Are you saying that everything you've told me about him so far is pointless," she asked, letting me know I'd moved to the thin ice. If I played this wrong, we would get no help at all. But if I played this right…

"I'm saying if I revealed everything I had, what would I have left to bargain with?" I countered confidently. It must have been a satisfying answer, because the look of skepticism and distrust vanished.

"I see," she murmured. "So, in exchange for information, you want…what?"

"We spearhead the war," I said flatly. "You'll back us up, reinforce our actions, and frankly go by our plans."

"You want command of the military forces?" she asked incredulously. "Who would follow you Jacob? You're a decent young man, and I have to give you credit for actually working your way into this office, but who would follow a thirteen year old boy?"

"For starters," I said, "some of the most powerful warriors on the planet."

"You mean your camp?" she asked. "I'm still not sure this would go over."

"Keep in mind information may not be the only thing I'm holding back," I warned. "There may be _other _methods I can use to convince you."

"What else are you holding back then Jacob?" the president asked. This was almost like a game of cards now. A game I was pretty sure I could win. "Something big I presume?"

"The wrath of the Olympians sound big enough?" I bluffed. Alex's and Rae both looked at me with widened eyes, their looks screaming _Say what? _But I was on a roll.

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Agree to my proposal, or the gods will destroy this and every other remaining major city," I threatened. "It'd just be clearing the battlefield, might even be better off doing that anyway."

"You're bluffing," she risked.

"Can you afford to be wrong about that?" I double-bluffed. I had to give it Rae and Alex, they stood watching like this was all part of the plan, and I wasn't just lying through my teeth. I decided to throw in an ace in the hole, although it might have been too much. "I also have your son."

"What?" the president asked. She rose out of her desk, her voice a mixture of shock and anger.

I checked my watch, "Ah, right on schedule."

An Iris message appeared in the middle of the room. In it, as clear as day to see, was Will with his sword held against the neck of the president's first born son. Everyone fell silent as all gazes fixed on the boy.

"Don't take this the wrong way," I said. "But I needed to make sure I would get the answer I wanted. You understand that it's in _everyone's_ best interest if you just agree to my plan."

"Eli! Honey are you alright?" she asked the boy in the Iris messages. I'd heard stories about how moms could become _lethal _when it came to defending their kids. This could either turn this into a smash victory or ruin everything.

I was also counting on Will's skill with improvised special effects, the acting skills of the president's son, and on neither Rae or Alex asking questions that would blow everything. I hadn't had time to fill them in on the plan, and besides it was way more theatrical this way.

"Mom!" he cried.

"Shut up," Will spat, and dragged the blade across. I crossed my fingers hoping the others had come through with their part.

Sure enough, blood ran down the neck of the hostage boy.

"Eli!"

But the Iris message vanished. The president just sat there staring at where it had been before turning to me. Weakly, she said, "It isn't just my choice. I have to run this through Congress…"

"I expect an answer soon," I said darkly. I'd spent several days practicing my badass face in the mirror. If it didn't pay off now, then I'd been humiliated via Henry's YouTube account for nothing. But apparently it did.

"Give me ten days," she begged.

"You've got a week," I shot back. "Come to us at Camp Half-Blood with an answer, be ready to fight. Either Urunos or us, depending on your choice. We'll be going now."

I stepped back to Alex and Rae, who looked at me with confusion. And here came the final gambit of my grand scheme. I'd done this trick on myself several times, but one another person? I placed a hand on each girl's shoulder, and all three of us melted into columns of water. I turned to Alex, and I saw glowing red veins mixed in with the water that was now her body. We collapsed into puddles, and quickly flowed out of the room.

We hit the gutter and kept flowing until finally we were a safe distance away. With all the concentration I had, we rose back up and reformed into living, breathing human beings. Rae gasped and started coughing, and Alex looked horribly disoriented. Suddenly, she coughed and water came out.

"Sorry," I apologized. "Couldn't really think of another way out, especially after everything I said."

"WHAT THE HADES WAS THAT?" Alex shouted, and smacked me on the arm.

"When did you kidnap the most heavily guarded child in the country?" Rae asked.

"I called in a few favors from Will and the others before we left," I said. "And we didn't kidnap them, we convinced them to help us. They're actually getting sword and spear training right now, being well taken care of. Have a little faith."

"Wait, so you mean to tell me—" Alex said, still furious.

"That was all part of the plan," I finished. "I told Will to send the Iris message at a certain time on a certain day, and then got us on the tour that would put us in the right place at the right time."

"And the blood?" Rae asked. "I thought Celestial bronze couldn't touch mortals."

"It can't," I confirmed. "But it can cut open a packet of fake blood just fine."

"And the bluff about the gods destroying everything?" Alex asked.

"Calculated risk," I said, feeling proud. It had all fit together pretty well, and the plan wasn't even done yet.

"What if the mortals show up in a week and they want to fight _us _instead of Urunos?" she asked.

"Yeah, what happens then?" Rae said.

"That's where the rest of the plan comes in," I told them. "In a week, Urunos will be too close to ignore. They'll have to fight him, and they won't complain when we're fighting with them."

"That's…that's…"

"Brilliant," Alex said. "Jacob…wow. That is the riskiest move you've ever made."

"And if I'm lucky, it'll pay off," I jinxed. "Now…does anyone remember where we parked the van?"

Alex and Rae looked around idly. The van wasn't in sight. "Oh…Styx."

Rae sighed. "We'd better start looking…"

We walked off, but Alex fell behind briefly to whisper in my ear. "You know, your badass face needs more work. You looked…constipated."

I groaned.

_**Yay plot chapter! Well, was Jacob's plan brilliant enough for ya? I think it was, but that's just me. I already see some flaws in it, which I may exploit...and then prove them to not be flaws at all. But anyway, please review and you will get a cookie.**_


	26. The Pedal Meets the Metal

_**Alright, this chapter I'm going to TRY and work some Jalex in. Not sure if it's going to work or not, but we'll see…Anywho, I'll just be getting to writing this now, so enjoy.**_

Jacob's POV

About halfway through the trip back home. I think that was when everything fell apart. Rae was leaning on my shoulder, out like a light (Asleep for the record, not knocked out by one of Alex's stunts.). Alex was still driving, although she kept glancing into the rear view mirror for some reason. And me? I was just casually sharpening Miz. It's stupid not to keep a weapon maintained, and besides, if I don't sharpen him at least once a week he starts to complain. A lot.

_Ah, that's the spot…ohh yeah, right there…_Miz moaned.

_You can't even feel it_, I thought back.

_I like to pretend I can._

The sky started to darken as thunderclouds formed above us. There was the occasional rumble, but everything was still relatively peaceful. A single, intense bolt of lightning shot across the sky, briefly turning the whole horizon white.

As if the lightning bolt had cut open the clouds, it started to rain. It didn't even start slow, just all at once started pouring down. Alex set the windshield wipers to go as fast as they could, still driving but now gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles.

"You don't think…" I started.

"Of course not," she said. "It isn't this close…"

"What if it is?" I asked.

Alex's eyes briefly flashed red, and I thought for a moment she was going to kill us all right then and there. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut and hunched over the steering wheel. The car started to lurch until I reached out and straightened out the steering wheel. Rae fell off my shoulder and her head bumped into a window.

"I'm okay," Alex said after a moment. "I'm…I'm okay now."

"Was that…?"

Alex nodded. "Jacob…he's close."

I looked to the sky along with Alex, watching the clouds flash with lighting…and an eerie red glow. Small orbs of fire began to form in the clouds, despite the rain. And then, one by one, they began to fall toward the earth.

"Styx!" Alex cursed when she had to swerve to avoid being hit by one. Fire was raining down all around now, and it was taking skill on Alex's part to avoid them. Rae moaned and woke up, rubbing her eyelids.

"Are we there yet?" she asked sleepily.

"Not even close!" Alex shouted and swerved hard to the right. The fireball that would have hit us instead struck the car behind us, which caught fire and quickly exploded. Rae started screaming and cursing.

"We have to get out of here!" I shouted over her.

"What do you think I'm trying to do!" Alex shot back. I heard the gas pedal connect with the floor.

"Look out for that—"

"No backseat driving!" Alex interrupted with a yell. I shut up.

We bumped and roared along the road, destruction chasing us. Wind was picking up too now, trees were bending and lots of debris was flying. Rae was trembling and huddling next to me as close as possible, gripping my arm for dear life.

Then, a human figure dropped down to the ground, leaving cracks in the street where it landed. It was wearing tattered clothing, its skin was charcoal black with glowing red cracks in it. Fire danced across its arms and legs.

"What is _that_?" I asked, confused.

"We're not sticking around to find out!" Alex shouted, driving away as fast as she could. Other cars passed by in a blur as we sped away. And as more of those…things started to fall form the sky, people started to scream.

"Whatever they are, they're not friendly," I decided.

"What was your first clue?" Alex taunted as she drove. One landed right in front of us, and Alex ran it over at a hundred and ten miles per hour.

"We're gonna die…we're gonna die…we're gonna die…" Rae repeated, hiding her face in my shoulder.

"Shut up!" Alex shouted. "We're gonna live whether you like it or not!"

We hit something, maybe another one of those creatures, maybe a pothole. Whatever it was sent the van into the air before it crashed and started tumbling across the street. When it finally skidded to a halt, my ears were ringing, Rae was unconscious, and Alex was trying to tear off her jammed seat belt.

That's when it occurred to me the van was now upside down. I hit the release on my seat belt and fell out before grabbing Miz and slicing Alex free. She gave a nod of thanks and kicked open the windshield. She climbed out, and I soon followed with Rae.

"Van's still running," Alex said, "just need to flip it over."

"Easy," I said sarcastically.

"You're the one with the water powers," she said. "And it's raining so hard I'm already soaked. See what you can do."

"Fine," I said, giving her Rae to carry. "Hold this."

The rain water was a bit harder to control than normal fresh or sea water. It had just fallen from the sky, meaning it was still getting over formerly belonging to Zeus. Nevertheless, with a bit of concentration I was able to hit the van with a powerful blast of water that pushed it upright again.

Alex handed me back the still limp Rae. "Alright," she said, "let's get out of here before—"

Another of those hideous _things _fell, landing in front of us. It was soon followed by several more. Alex drew her sword, and I slung Rae over my left shoulder so I could still fight one-handed. They began to circle us, growling and snarling.

Some of them looked less like walking barbecue charcoals than others, and none of them had flaming arms, but they all looked dangerous.

Alex's resolve was temporarily broken as her eyes glowed red, and she staggered briefly. She squeezed her eyes shut as she fought for control, and I wasn't sure who was winning. When she opened her eyes and smiled, my heart sank.

Her eyes were still glowing with the reddish gray of Urunos.

Then, out of the blue, she gave a battle cry and thrust her hands forward. All of the creatures surrounding us flew backward, turning to clouds of ash when they hit the pavement. Huh?

She turned to me, her glowing eyes glaring, as if daring me to say something.

"Alex?" I asked, worried.

And just like that, the glow was gone and Alex was herself again. She looked at me and then around us, confused. "What did I…"

"No time, we have to move!" I shouted, grabbing her and dragging her to the van, I practically had to force her into the driver's seat, but once she was in she seemed to get the picture and gripped the wheel, waiting for me and Rae.

I tossed Rae in and grabbed a handhold to pull myself in as well, already shouting at Alex to go. She floored it even as I was still climbing in and shutting the door.

"What were those things?" I asked, dripping wet,

Alex looked back at me with fear filled eyes. "They were…mortals."

_**Okay, so no Jalex this chapter. Next one for sure though. Or the next after that. Anyway, let's review some very key developments this chapter: Alex used Urunos's power AGAINST slaves of Urunos, those charcoal/fiery husks were mortals, and Rae is out cold.**_


	27. The Truth Comes Out

_**Ahhh. Good to take some time off to write this bad boy before the morning of. Maybe I can get some decent length in this time. Eh, who knows. Now, let's see if I can squeeze in some Jalex. Good thing Rae is out cold.**_

Jacob's POV

"Of course," I realized as Alex finished explaining. "The mortals' bodies can't handle hosting Urunos, and their bodies start to burn up."

"That's the gist of it," Alex said, the worried look never leaving her face. I should've just dropped Urunos. The very mention of him gave Alex that pained look on her face she got whenever Urunos was making a push. "They end up mindless, easy to kill powerhouses."

"Unbelievable…" I breathed. "Urunos is making the same decision we are. Quantity over quality."

"Are you saying I wouldn't make a quality host?" Alex said, trying to joke. But her heart wasn't in it. We both laughed uneasily, but it died out into an awkward silence.

"You okay?" I asked after a while.

Alex's downcast look came back. "That's what worries me. Remember back, those things had surrounded us? I…I felt Urunos trying to take over. So many people possessed by him nearby, it was like he was stronger with more of…him. I tried to keep control, he tried to take it, and then suddenly we just…fused. He wasn't in control and neither was I. It was like a whole new person."

"That new person was both of us, and it wanted what both of us wanted. Somehow my personality came out on top," Alex said. "I was inside his head, and he was inside mine. It's all a blur, it happened so fast…but I caught bits and pieces."

"Bits and pieces of what?" I asked, confused.

"Of…him," Alex tried to explain. "His thoughts his memories, his plans, everything. It was going a million miles an hour though, I couldn't make any sense out of most of it."

"Do you think maybe he did the same to you? Saw our plans inside your head?" I asked, worried. If Alex became an unwilling spy, I'd be forced not to trust my best friend.

"I don't know," Alex admitted. "Jacob, when me and Urunos fused…it felt good. I felt invincible, like anything I wanted I could have. I was all about me. And the reason I saved us from those possessed mortals? They were getting on my nerves."

"Alex…" I tried to comfort her. But I still wasn't even sure what in all of this was making her this way. Okay yeah, being possessed by an evil primordial god in it of itself is upsetting, but that was too broad. With Alex, it was always something specific.

"That power…" Alex shivered. "It scares me to say this but even after it left and I got control again…I wanted it. I wanted more."

"How? I thought you hated it?" I asked.

"You don't know Jacob," she said. "You can't know unless you feel it for yourself. The raw power of it all is just…immense."

She suddenly bit her lip and jerked the wheel, pulling us off the road. She looked at me, fear in her eyes. "Listen to me. Rambling like some power hungry monster. Jacob what's happening to me? I should be able to fight this. I should— I should…"

I unbuckled my seat belt and hugged her as best I could with her still sitting in the driver's seat. She stopped, returned to hug, and nuzzled into my neck. "Jacob…please just make it stop."

"I can't," I said. "Not yet. But I'll find a way, I'll get him out of you."

"No," she said, pushing me away now. "I mean _make it stop_. Right now. I can't do it myself…I tried, he just resists. You have to do it."

She pulled my pen out of my pocket, pressed it into my palm, and clicked it into Miz. She even held the point to her throat and waited for me to finish it.

_Kid I hate to say it but…maybe she's right. If we don't end this now, Urunos just gets stronger and stronger. Eventually, she'll lose control for good. And then you'll have to kill her, only it won't be this easy._

I ignored him and collapsed him back into a pen. She looked at me as if to say 'Why? Why are you doing this to me?'. I looked away, unable to say or even understand why. Killing Alex was, for all its intents and purposes, the most tactically sound thing to do. Her lack of control was becoming a bigger and bigger liability. Add the fact that Urunos could read her mind, and it was a major concern that could be permanently dealt with in only one way. Every ounce of Athena in me was screaming to do it.

But I couldn't. Why not? _Just be the good strategist and end it. It's what she wants, and it only weakens your fight if she stays._ The little tactician in my head said. She was my best friend, I couldn't just kill her. But the war was supposed to come before personal feelings. _This is what war is_._ Sometimes, you're going to have to send your best friend to their death because it's the only way_.

Alex's pleading look, and the coldly logical part of my brain were compelling. I fingered the button to click the pen, but hesitated. Could I live with myself if I killed her and then found out there had been another way?

What would I tell her parents? 'Oh, she was a threat to the war effort, so I slit her throat'? What would _my _parents think? Well, Mom might accept it eventually but dad... Dad's fatal flaw was his attachment to friends and family. He'd risk the whole world to save the people he's close to. Was that my flaw too?

And just how close was I to Alex? Were we really just friends? I knew how she'd felt, I'd eavesdropped on enough arguments between her and Rae to get the point. But I was with Rae…

Now a new voice entered my head. _Remove Rae from the picture for a second. How do you feel?_ It wasn't my thoughts. It was too…feminine. Not knowing why, I imagined Rae not being my girlfriend, not being in my life, and thought of Alex…

I loved her too much to kill her.

My mind snapped out of its argument with itself, and I realized I'd put my sword to her neck without even thinking, like my body had gone into autopilot while my mind debated. Blood was already running, but the cut wasn't deep. I pulled the sword away, collapsing it.

"I can't…" I told her, in response to her sad eyes.

"Why not?" she asked. She didn't seem to care about the trickle of blood running down her neck. "Just tell me why Jacob."

"Because…I just can't," I said, unable to form the words. "Why don't you rest? I'll take the wheel for a while."

"You're not old enough…" she protested.

"Alex, you've driven us the whole way to D.C and half the way back, you took hour long naps a couple of times and you're fighting for control of your body. You need the rest."

"I can keep going," she insisted.

I grabbed her neck and quickly found the right nerves to pinch. She let out a light moan and slumped over, unconscious. I forced her down into the passenger seat, strapped into the driver's seat, and drove off. I'm a Hybrid and I'm part Athena, how hard could it be?

As it turns out, very hard.

When the traffic cop pulled me over, I knew I was in trouble. When he came to the window and saw how old I was, my situation only got worse. He gave me a skeptical look.

"Son, are you even old enough to drive?"

"Funny story about that…" I said, and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. I yanked hard, slamming his forehead into the car and knocking him out cold. "Sorry!" I yelled back as I floored the gas pedal. But I'd forgotten to put it in drive, and instead it backed up into the cop car parked behind us. I smacked myself in the forehead, shifted gears, and drove off.

_**And that proves that Jacob is a very, VERY bad driver. At least Alex's stunts were on purpose, but gods that was awful. Anyway, next chapter is the some more CHB prep and training, featuring Jacob the badass.**_

_**Yeah…this story is going to beat Prison of the Gods for number of chapters.**_


	28. Roxanne Gets Her Flirt On

Alex's POV

By the time we finally got back to Camp, two of our seven days before the mortals and Urunos came were already used up, we were all hungry and both Rae and I were begging Jacob to let me take the wheel. We finally screeched back to camp, and Rae jumped out of the van as soon as possible.

"What was that noise we heard on the way it?" I asked Jacob as I climbed out.

"What noise, I didn't hear a noise," Jacob defended.

"No, it sounded like a cat. Right after I heard it we hit a bump too," I recalled.

"Alright, that's enough of that story," Jacob interrupted.

"Poor cat," Rae said with a sad face.

By now the rest of the camp was aware we were back. Everyone took a break from what they were doing, and came over to flood us—mostly Jacob—with questions. Among the crowd I saw the president's son, alive and well just as promised. Jacob was making a gamble with this one for sure. I mean if someone kidnapped my kid, I'd flay them alive.

They got down to talking, and it turned out it had been James training our new guest. James, as in the little archer son of Apollo who had next to know experience with a sword. Whose bright idea was that?

"Jacob, are you still giving Rae sword lessons?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?" he said.

"I think you may have to expand that class to three students," I suggested.

"Alright, what have you got planned?"

Roughly ten minutes later, Jacob was giving Rae, James, and the president's son sword lessons. They were all at varying degrees of skill, and none of them were very good. Hades, Rae was the best out of the three.

Needless to say, whenever they sparred with Jacob he had them beat in one to five sword swipes. It was fun to watch (Oh, you can't imagine how fun it was whenever Jacob "impaled" Rae. She is so lucky Celestial bronze passes right through her.) And while I'm sure those three got good practice out of it, this wasn't doing a thing of good for Jacob.

James swung, and Jacob blocked with a flick of his wrist. When James tried to swing again, Jacob parried and swung, stopping just short of taking James's head off.

"Nice try," Jacob said. "Work on your angle of attack."

Rae stepped up to spar next, and Jacob readied his weapon. "Don't think I'll go easy on you just because of your looks," Jacob taunted.

"Very funny," Rae said.

Their swords clashed and locked for an instant before they shoved each other apart. Jacob tried a low swipe, which Rae managed to block and counter pretty decently. Jacob of course blocked the counter attack and lunged, nearly impaling Rae before she dodged.

The duel continued for a few more seconds before Jacob found an opening and disarmed her with a quick maneuver. He caught her sword and held it to her throat while he stabbed the other through her gut. It just passed through her like it wasn't real, but it _looked_ like he'd stabbed her in the gut at least.

"Well, that was impressive for a beginner," I said, walking over with my sword out but held at my side almost dangling.

"Really?" Rae asked, panting. "I do think I'm getting better."

"You probably are," I said. "Jacob on the other hand…maybe not. You're not getting much practice out of this."

"What are you talking about?" he said, smiling. He was having too good a time with this. "I'm getting tones of practice."

"Weak enemies equal a weak warrior," I said, then turned to Jacob's "students". "No offense."

"None taken, I suck," James assured, looking at the sword in his hand as if it were an alien object. "How do you people _use _these things?"

"What are you suggesting?" Jacob asked.

"Just that maybe you try a sparring partner that provides a little bit of a challenge," I said, then added for my sake, "And besides, your students need to see that you're not invincible."

"Oh?" he challenged, spinning his sword once before holding it at ready.

"Don't think I'll go easy on you just because of your looks," I taunted, earning a laugh from our three observers.

"Cute," Jacob shot back, and shot forward.

Bronze met iron and we were off, our swords moving faster than anything Rae or the others had been able to pull off. The dance of death began as we circled each other, and after a few seconds I was leading, pushing him back.

Jacob blocked my strike and managed to grab my wrist before I could pull my arm back. He brought his weapon forward, but I grabbed his wrist and locked us into a stalemate. Jacob broke it by jumping up off his feet and kicking out, breaking contact and forcing both of us to let go.

I spun and sliced, but Jacob intercepted easily enough. Jacob pushed forward with three powerful swipes, each one resounding off my sword with a _clang _and each one forcing me to back off a step. I tried to take the offensive back by lunging, but he parried and continued his assault effortlessly.

At least, that was how his movements portrayed. Mine probably looked that way right now too. Effortless. Jacob forced me back, our swords clashing again and again. Somehow, I'm still not sure how I didn't notice, we'd forced each other back until we'd reached the cabins that were still standing.

I parried his swipe and tried a lunge, but he jumped over it and landed behind me. Before I could say Zeus, his sword was over my neck.

"I win," he said triumphantly.

"Like Hades," I shot back and judo threw him over my shoulder. He fell onto his back, and I stepped on his wrist hard enough to make him release his sword. I batted it away with my own, and then angled my sword down at his neck.

"This is that part where you admit I'm still better than you," I said with a smile on my face.

"No, this is the part where I say you cheated," he said, his usual excuse. "Again."

I moved my sword away from his throat and hauled him to his feet. "No such thing in a real fight. Besides, I still had my weapon, you should've known I would still fight."

"Most people would give up when there's a sword on their neck," Jacob defended.

"I'm not most people."

I looked to where I was pretty sure Rae, James, and the president's son were watching. Instead, I saw them and half of camp. They were all holding back laughter. Jacob groaned and muttered something I couldn't hear.

"And that my friends concludes today's lesson on Ego Trimming 101," I joked. They all laughed, even Jacob.

"Guys!" a voice shouted.

All heads spun to see Han trot in at full speed, panting and with a wild look in his eye. "Can someone _please explain _why there are helicopters with guns headed this way?"

"What?" we all collectively shouted back.

"Come on!" he shouted, trotting off for Half-Blood Hill. We followed him, running. Jacob looked like he was already thinking this through and forming a plan.

When we got to the hill, we could plainly see several helicopters coming. Like Han said, they had guns. Big guns. A few pairs of eyes glanced at our local son of a politician. He looked embarrassed, though I couldn't imagine why. Who could be embarrassed when GIANT HELICOPTERS OF DEATH were coming?

Terrified yes. I think most of us were terrified.

Jacob…Jacob probably already had a plan, back-up plan, and plan for what to do when his plan succeeded.

"What do we do now?" Rae asked.

"We hope they have the answer we want," Jacob said, "and then we get to planning for Urunos's attack."

"And if that's not the case?" Will asked.

"Then we execute Operation: Dangling Fish," he sad theatrically.

"Yeah…you're going to want to fill us in on the details buddy," Henry said. "Because so far this plan sounds like fish cruelty."

Jacob outlined what was going to happen and how, but Henry liked it less and less. When the explanation process was done, he complained, "Why am I the bait?"

"Don't be a baby," Jacob said.

"I will be as babyish as I want!" Henry protested. "Those guns are FREAKIN' HUGE!"

As they ranted on, I glanced at Roxanne and jerked my head in Henry's direction. She looked him over and shook her head with a look of disgust. I jerked my head in his direction again, then tapped my fingertips together repeatedly. She firmly shook her head no. I held up five fingers, knowing it would work.

She threw her hands into the air and stomped over to Henry. It wasn't that big a secret that the poor idiot had a crush on Roxanne, which only seemed to make her more annoyed with him. But if anyone could convince Henry to be the bait in Jacob's plan, it was her.

"Henry, you have to do it," she said in her best flirting voice.

"Why?" Henry shouted, then realized it was Roxanne he was talking to.

"Well, it's just, you'd be the best for the job," she said as nicely as she could. Aside from me, no one knew everything Roxanne was doing was an act she was getting paid five bucks for. They probably thought she'd lost it.

"So strong, so brave, so handsome," she said, placing a hand on his as usual bare chest. Henry tried to say something back, but all I could make out was "bribum…givle hienks…". Roxanne looked like she wanted to barf, and then kill herself. But she forced a tortured smile.

"How could you not distract them?" she added. "Especially if the pilots are women. They wouldn't be able to take their eyes off of you. I know I can't…"

Henry shook his head to clear it. "I'll do it!"

Jacob and everyone else was still staring at Roxanne with jaws slackened and disbelieving looks. Roxanne sent me a death glare. _You owe me._ I did, big time, but if it saved our butts it might just be worth it.

"Oh…..kay then," Jacob said, still recovering. "Right, the rest of you, set up defensive positions, but keep it concealed. Everyone on the Luring Team, follow me."

This could either be a very good plan, or a disaster waiting to happen.

_**Another of Jaocb's plans to take over the universe. Okay, maybe that's not the goal but still…did you guys enjoy Roxanne act? Henry did. Should I at all expand on that or make it a one time thing?**_


	29. Henry is on the Run

Henry's POV

I hate my life.

But that doesn't mean I hate living, which was why (even after saying in front of Roxanne that I would do it) I was more than a little reluctant to carry out my part of Jacob's master plan. I mean seriously, why couldn't he do this part? I'm sure it would impress Alex…or Rae...or whichever one it is this week, I don't pretend to keep track.

But any, I'm getting distracted. That's ADHD for you, you try to focus and suddenly every little thing catches your mind. Like one time, when I was playing soccer— DANG IT NOT AGAIN!

Right. Focus. Like a laser. In a magnifying glass…oh! I bet you could set some ants on fire with that— ARGH!

ANYWAY! I was waiting on the sidewalk, next to a nearby fire hydrant, thinking to myself over and over __! But outwardly, I was calm, cool, and collected. I exhaled as the helicopters drew closer, making their big guns look even bigger (I didn't think that was possible.) and making me wonder if a girl was worth this.

They passed by, continuing to camp. Here was my one shot…

I pulled the switchblade out of my pocket, but when I hit the button to eject the blade, instead the whole thing grew and expanded into my trident. It felt good to have the weapon back in my hands, ready to kick names and take butt. Wait, I mean— argh nevermind.

I looked at the fire hydrant, trying to focus on the water it was keeping back. It started to rumble, but stopped when I briefly lost my focus thinking about dogs taking leaks on fire hydrants. I smacked myself, and the fire hydrant resumed shaking violently. It burst open, and the water shot out, directed by my will.

It hit the rear helicopter hard enough, and for a long enough period of time to get their attention. It, and its companions turned around to face me. Several of the big guns began to spin, and I felt the inside of my pants get a little…warmer.

"You want the kid?" I shouted, waving my trident to make it as obvious as possible I was a demigod. "Come and get him!"

And then I ran.

Bullets were chasing me, and when I looked back I saw all four of the five helicopters pursuing me with guns blazing. Hot lead chased me as I ran as fast as my pathetic legs would carry me back into town, screaming all the way.

The other remaining helicopter continued its flight toward camp. One heli would definitely not be enough to give the defenders trouble, but four chasing after little old me? We had a problem in the form of my horrible allergy to death.

I kept screaming, and kept running, leading them away from camp and toward New York City. Finally the car I'd been waiting for happened to be passing by, and I jumped on. The helicopters stopped firing , but continued to follow.

"That's right suckers!" I taunted, waving my trident around like a madman. "Come and get me!"

In the city now, people were running away and screaming. The helicopter had some sort of speakers on them, and they were shouting out of them. I think they were telling everyone to evacuate the area or something. It didn't matter. I'd reached my stop and was moving on with step two of the plan.

I tapped the hood of the car in gratitude, and from inside Will gave me a thumbs up. I jumped off of her stolen car and took off running down a alley, bullets once again trying to kill me. Then, a rocket flew from one of the helicopters.

"This isn't part of the plan!" I complained to Jacob, even though he was still a ways off.

I jumped up and grabbed the ladder of a fire escape. The rocket soared under my dangling feet and exploded harmlessly underneath me. I laughed victoriously, dropped down, and kept running.

"That all you guys got?" I taunted, and a burst of gunfire knocked my trident out of my hand. "Styx!"

One helicopter flew in front of me and dropped lines of rope down. From them, a group of troops dropped down shouting and coming after me. "Styx, styx, styx!"

I tried to pick up my trident, and bullets danced around it and I was forced away. "What the Styx?"

I was dead. I knew I had to be. I still wasn't where Jacob had said to lure them, and now I was going to—

—die?

Water spouted off a nearby rooftop, hitting the rotors and several helicopters. The water flash froze, jamming the rotors and causing the helicopters to plummet. Unimaginably strong winds roared in with so much force I was thrown into a face plant on the street. Looking up, I watched as the helicopters were gently guided down to the ground by cushions of air.

Jacob jumped off the rooftop he'd frozen the helicopter rotors from, landing fist first. I figured that would hurt, and it probably did, but he must've thrown in a bit of earthquake power or something, because the whole ground shook when he landed.

Alex glided in, riding a cushion of air that swirled and whistled. She touched down gently on the street, a smirk on her face. Some of the guns the soldiers carried switched over to point at her, but if she cared she didn't show it.

A car screeched forward, and all guns pointed at it. Brakes squealed and it skidded to a halt, bruning rubber and leaving smoke and black lines in its wake. The door opened up, and Will stepped out, tall and proud.

"Nice entrances," I noted. "How come I didn't get one?"

"Oh, you running in and screaming 'Styx!' wasn't your entrance?" Alex taunted. I groaned.

Then it occurred to me through observation. Alex had touched down west of the four helicopters and their troops, Will had pulled up east of them. Jacob had landed north of them, and there I was standing to the south of them. We actually had them surrounded!

"Gentlemen," Jacob said confidently, "I'm telling you the truth when I say we mean you know harm. The boy you're looking for is safe, and we can take you to him. That is, if you would be so kind as to apologize for trying to shoot my dear friend Henry, lower your weapons, call of that last chopper, and get me in touch with whoever sent you."

"A lot of demands from a kid with only three people for backup," one of them said. None of them lowered their guns.

Jacob snapped his fingers, and the ice on one of the rotors turned back into water. I don't know how, but the water actually compressed, crushing the rotor blades and causing the sound of crunching metal to echo through the streets.

Alex waved her hand, and in sync with her motions a gust of wind blew the weapons free of the soldiers' hands.

"Now, let's try that again…" Jacob said. For some reason, the soldiers were more compliant. While I liked the direction things were going, this hadn't been part of the plan…or had it? Had Jacob actually thought all of this out? I mean, those entrances were pretty well choreographed…

The rockets, me going off course, me losing my trident and getting stuck in the right place at the right time, the entrances perfectly positioned to surround the enemy…could Jacob really account for all of that? ….nah.

_**And that is a little look inside the mind of Henry, plus another one of Jacob's plans working out. Wait! This just in! We're receiving a message from another universe!**_

_**Playing Now:**_

_**Jacob: Henry, yes. I can. And I did.**_


	30. Rae Says Goodbye

_**Hey guys. Good news and bad news. The good news is, the polls on FF are working again, so if you want to save your favorite character the poll on my profile is waiting. Now the bad news…some agency business has come up (What? You think my pen name is made up?) and I have to go infiltrate a wed—**_

_**002: Don't tell them! It's called a SECRET mission for a reason.**_

_**Anyway, I probably won't be able to update tomorrow, although there is a slight chance. Just don't log onto tomorrow expecting it. I apologize in advance, so the next time I update you guys will get a reward of some sorts.**_

Jacob's POV

I admit I wasn't really surprised when they tried to send soldiers into camp to take back our "hostage" by force. But one thing I didn't expect was for the president to take it so well when she found out her soldiers had failed and had been sent home with no dessert. She just seemed…annoyed. I was having Rae look into that, find out if anything was going on in the world that could be swaying the mortals to give the answer we wanted.

The president's son actually apologized about the helicopters. But no one had gotten hurt, so there was really nothing to apologize for. If anything, that little "attack" had given us something to do besides sit around and wait for either Urunos to march up to our doorstep or for the mortals to show up with a "Yes, we'll help you."

But…neither was going to happen soon. Not for another four days anyway. I'd already decided what the problem was. The mortals weren't convinced they needed us. They still believed they could handle things on their own. It was time to prove we were useful for more than just information. The only thing was that the only way to prove our worth was a suicide mission in it of itself.

If we went to whatever city Urunos and Zeus were fighting above right now, killed enough of his army and saved enough civilians, we might look very useful. Heck, they might even start calling us heroes. But the last time we'd gone against Urunos's army, it hadn't gone well at all.

Who to take with me?

Henry, idiot or not, was a powerhouse. He'd fought some of the best fighters to a draw with his trident, even if his sword skills were barely above that of James'. His water powers weren't as evolved as mine, but he knew some good tricks. He and I could both heal and be healed by water, making injuries less of a worry.

Tony would be jumping at the chance. A son of Zeus. He's all brute force in a fight, I've seen it. His fighting style involves exhausting and overwhelming opponents. Lethal in one on one combat, but not as skilled at fighting multiple enemies.

Alex was an impossibly good fighter, and her powers were second to none (Well maybe mine, but if I ever said that…let's just say I want to live.). But she'd already said how being around other people controlled by Urunos made her own infection harder to control. I didn't want her to put her through that if it wasn't necessary.

Rae was a definite no. Still only amateur skill with a sword, and progressing slow. She didn't have the natural talent nearly every half-blood had, she was forging her own skill. She was trying, but I wasn't about to send my girlfriend into a war zone, especially if she was still only a rookie with her sword.

Then there were others to choose from too. Who was I going to take? Would I just take everyone who could still fight, or go with only three like a normal quest?

I needed to clear my head, think of something else for a bit. Maybe Rae had dug up some useful information. I found her near the Artemis cabin, working on the solar powered laptop Will had…found for use as a connection to the rest of the world.

It worked out great. We could get news, information, and everything else pretty easily. Not to mention there was good wifi at camp no one had known about before. If you ever find the wifi network _hephaestusconnect117_, use it. It works. The only problem I had with the laptop was that Henry used it to look at anything and everything having to do with cats.

I tapped Rae on the shoulder, and she jumped slightly before relaxing when she saw it was me. "Hey you," she said with a smile.

"Find out anything useful yet?" I asked. Much as I wanted to, this wasn't a social visit. "Like what might have the mortals so…easy to manipulate?"

"Actually yes," Rae said. "A small military expeditionary force headed for the 'heart of the storm' yesterday. Not a single one of them came back. They disappeared along with the city they were headed to. "That's all the details I can pull of public domains, but I'm sure there's more the government is keeping classified. You won't believe the YouTube videos I'm finding. In every city that falls victim, Urunos's army is just bigger and bigger."

"Do you know where Urunos is now?" I asked, looking at her computer screen as she worked.

"Latest reports and YouTube videos put him in...Pennsylvania, near its northern border. He'll cross into New York state by the end of the day," Rae said.

I did the math in my head. Four days left. Urunos would be in the state by the end of today. It would take a day to drive out there…figure for his current rate of travel and direction…

"I know where we have to go," I said.

"Go? Go where?" Rae asked.

"Not you," I said firmly. "You're staying here, so it doesn't matter."

"Yes it matters," she huffed. "Jake, where are you going?"

"I live a dangerous life Rae," I said, trying to evade her question. "Sometimes I have to do dangerous things."

"Jake, you didn't answer my question," she said, quietly, her face looking hurt. Realization dawned on her. "You're going to fight Urunos."

"Not exactly," I defended, but she interrupted me before I could explain.

"You can't! Not alone, not without help," Rae said. "Look what happened last time. If you go you'll die!"

"If I don't prove to the mortals they need us, we'll get nowhere," I said. "If I can go, do some real good and deal some damage Urunos's way, maybe they'll see they need us."

"A maybe can't be worth risking your life," she said. "You can't just go off an die, I need you. We need you."

"If I don't take this risk, a whole lot more people will die," I said. "And I won't be going completely alone. I'll take some back-up. I'll be fine, and I'll some back to you."

She looked into my eyes and saw I wasn't going to change my mind. She sighed, closed the laptop, and slumped against the Artemis cabin. "Jacob…I know we didn't meet that long ago, and I know there's still so much to learn about you. But this…I don't want this to have to end because you died. So you'd better come back to me. Promise me, you'll pull through."

"It doesn't work that way," I said, sitting down next to her. "You know that. But if I've got any reason to come out of this alive, it's you. I'm going to do everything I can Rae, to make sure I do what has to be done and come back alive. But sometimes, those two are mutually exclusive."

Her hand interlocked with mine, and we sat there for a little while. "I know," she said, resting her head on my shoulder. "I know…do you have to leave today?"

"Probably," I said. "I can't risk missing Urunos and having to play catch up."

"Going up against a primordial god and his enslaved army, and you're worried about being late," she joked lightly. Her hand squeezed a little tighter around mine. She turned to me, and our lips met. It was a soft, sweet kiss goodbye. Like sort of a "in case you don't come back" kind of thing.

Funny, this wasn't even the real battle, and already it felt like my days, and the days of everyone I cared about, were numbered. We pulled apart after a moment, and she rest her head on my chest.

"I should go," I said, kissing the top of her head and standing up.

"Take care of yourself," she said.

"I will!" I promised, walking off.

"And kill a few for me!" she added, her voice getting farther away.

"I will!"

It was as good a send-off as I could've hoped for. The sun was starting to set, and I needed to move. I had Henry and Roxanne come with me to the van. This was it. Roxanne and Henry climbed into the back, and I was about to get into the driver's seat when someone behind me cleared their throat.

I turned, and Alex was standing there ready to go.

"No, no, you're sitting this one out," I told her. I started to climb into the driver's seat, but she pulled me back.

"Not with your driving," she said, and jumped into the driver's seat. "Besides, your girlfriend asked me to keep an eye on you, and I can't very well do that if I'm at camp and you're not. So either get in the passenger seat or stay here."

Something about the way her confident tone faltered on "stay here" seemed to say _Please don't stay here_. Like I was going to sit this one out.

I climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up. Henry was chuckling, but I shot him a glare and he stopped. Alex smiled at me still coming, pushed the gas, and we were off.

_**I don't know about you, but I liked this chapter. Obvious Jacae and subtle hints of Jalex, it was nice and dramatic, and it sets the stage for the next chapter very nicely. I'm going to be continuing to expand on the whole Henry/Roxanne thing, but don't expect them to start going out, even by the end of the Trilogy. Theirs is a more complicated affair…not LITERALLY!**_


	31. The Fight is On

_**003: Okay guys, I'm back. Some crazy stuff happened while I was gone, let me tell you. Actually I can't because it would be too long for an author's note. But the short version is**_

_**002: We got married!**_

_**003: Yeah. Anyway, as reward for having to endure a day without an update, today a preview of Colors of War is going active. Hurray for that. Also, the whole marriage situation…that's going to be explained in a story on my fictionpress account. I'll let you know when that's up.**_

_**1136: So when's the honeymoon?**_

_**002: Now! *drags 003 out the door***_

Jacob's POV

"Oh my gods," I whispered as we came closer.

"Whoa…" was Roxanne's stunned reaction.

"Styx," Henry whimpered.

"This can't be good," Alex groaned.

The city was being torn apart. Fire, wind, rain, and lightning all raged out of control. Cars were flying and as we continued to drive towards the chaos a building collapsed into its own footprint. The screams were dimly audible as we drove on. Cars were rushing down the streets away from it all. But we headed straight for it.

There were a series of rapid fire cracks, a roar, and an explosion elsewhere in the city. Shouts followed soon after. It was as good a place as any to start. The van screeched to a halt, and the four of us jumped out like it was on fire.

Outside, the wind and rain soaked your clothes and made them flail with the wind. It was hard to hear myself think, let alone the others.

"Henry, search the area for civilians, get them out of here!" I shouted over the storm.

"Got it!" he shouted back, and ran off.

"Roxanne, go with him, keep him alive!" I shouted.

"Why me?" she complained.

"JUST DO IT!" was my reason for her. She obeyed this time. With them gone it was down to me and Alex.

"And us?" she asked.

"We're going to find out who's shooting, and at what!" I shouted, and clicked Miz to life. _What in Hades have you gotten us into _this _time?_

She nodded, and we sprinted to the source of the gunshots. Or, tried to anyway. We were running against the wind on water slickened street, so it wasn't easy. A strong gust blew us onto our butts, and then the wind pushed us back like the street was a water slide. I grunted and focused on the water immediately around both me and Alex and thought _dry_. The water moved away from us, forming a circle of dry earth that the rain seemingly had no effect on and causing the water slide effect to end. I stood up and then helped Alex to her feet.

"Think you can do something about this wind?" I shouted.

"What?" she asked, unable to hear me over the storm.

I got closer and shouted, "Can you stop some of this wind?"

"I can try," she said, and steeled her gaze in front of us. The wind changed direction, and at least some of it was diverted away from directly hitting us. And so, with Alex diverting wind and me keeping our footing dry and secure, we pressed on, although much slower.

We finally rounded the corner where the shots had come from. Surrounding a tank that looked like it had shot itself were several mortal soldiers cursing and firing as more and more of Urunos's army advanced forward. One of them threw a grenade, but it stopped midair and came back to him.

He screamed, sure he was done for. I brought my hand up as quickly as I could, and water collected around him shot up and surrounded the grenade. It detonated, destroying my water bubble. But the soldier who'd thrown the grenade was safe.

As many of the soldiers pulled back behind the side of the tank Alex and I were walking toward, they noticed us. One of them cursed.

"Damn it, more civilians!" he said.

I walked up to him and crouched with them, Alex did the same. A ball of fire struck the tank's husk, sending embers over the edge and raining down on us. I held up Miz, his blade gleaming even in the dark.

"Do civilians carry these?" I shot back over the storm and gunfire. "We're here to help!"

"We don' t need any help!" the soldier shouted back as his buddies continued to curse and fire. One of them lowered his weapon in horror and tried to run, but something hit him and he fell to the floor in a pool of blood.

"I can see that," I sarcastically shouted. "Now, stay down.

I vaulted up and over the tank, and Alex did the same. There were about ten burning mortals advancing, all of them giving inhuman shrieks and flailing their limbs like mad. On command the water collected around our feet shot forward in a wave, clearing the street of them as they turned to black puffs of smoke and ember upon impact.

More begin to come down, a lot more. Alex and I went back to back as they encircled us. They hurled fireballs, but never to any effect. Alex would send out a gust of wind and simply put out the fire or divert it. I threw up a protective barrier of rain water whenever the need arose. Then, the enslaved got smart.

They started charging us, some of them using telekinesis to throw their buddies at us. Alex and I were forced into a defensive melee. At first it was easy. All it took was one good slice or stab just about anywhere on them, and they were gone. Add that they didn't carry weapons, and it should've been a walk in the park. The only problem was, there was a seemingly infinite amount of them. They came at us with arms out and mouths open, and Alex and I were forced to beat them back.

One of them tackled Alex from her blindside, and before I could help I too was mobbed by at least three of them. I struggled, even as Miz was knocked form my hand. I kicked one off of me, killing it in the process. I shoved another off to the side and then elbowed the back of its neck. The third though, managed to get a grip on my shoulders. I tried to pry him off, but to no avail.

I felt my body temperature drop, and the feeling of something trying to force its way in to me. Suddenly, there was a crack and the monster on top of me vanished. I rolled and grabbed Miz before getting up and seeing the soldier who'd fired the shot and saved me. He gave me a salute, which I quickly returned.

Alex was backed up against the wall, fighting as best she could. But eventually, one grabbed the wrist of her sword arm. She sent a burst of voltage into it, and it died. But another grabbed her arm. And another. And then more tackled her to the ground and started piling on top of her.

I ran forward and sliced, taking out three with one slice before an unseen forced yanked me across the street. I hit the wall of a building on the other side before slumping to the ground. An enslaved mortal was thrashing its limbs around like mad. And every time it did, something was flung like a rag doll by its powers.

Shots rang out and bullets flew toward it, but they all stopped midair and were promptly returned to their senders. I ran toward the pile Alex was under, screaming her name and dodging bullets. I felt a pain in my side and then a much bigger pain in my other, but kept going. Just as I reached the pile, and wave of forced detonated and the bodies went flying.

I was thrown to the floor and into a pool of blood. My blood. I grabbed the gaping exit wound from the bullet that had hit me, dazed. Alex rose to her feet, eyes glowing and filled with anger. I felt fear creep across my spine. _I knew she should've stayed behind_.

But she wasn't directing her glare at me. She was directing it at the creature whose raw power was keeping the soldiers back. Fire danced across her fingertips before shooting out and roasting the thing alive. The soldiers cheered, and Alex turned back towards me. I didn't even blink, but one second she was ten feet away and the next she was kneeling at my side, glowing eyes filled traveling across my body until she spotted the wound.

She placed her hand on it, and I screamed in pain. It only got worse as a horrible sensation radiated out from where her hand was, like I was being burned alive. When she removed her hand, the wound was cauterized.

"Get up," she said, her voice echoing. I nodded weakly and rose to my feet.

"I'll be back," Alex noted, and rose into the sky. Black and red lightning crackled around her and fire flickered on her fingers. Two other figures descended, also glowing. But they carried swords and wore body armor. They were enslaved demigods.

I jumped onto the side of a building and immediately started climbing, never taking my eyes off the standoff in the sky.

"Why do you resist? Join us," the two offered.

"Fry," Alex commanded, and black and red bolts of lightning shot from her sword and toward both of her opponents. They stopped it with their swords, but Alex kept up the onslaught. With her free hand, she prepared a fireball to throw.

She hurled it with deadly precision, and one of the demigods fell to the earth with a burning face. Alex turned to me and waved her hand, and the next thing I was aware of I was flung like a rag doll toward the screaming warrior.

I rolled across wet pavement, coming to a stop right next to him. His face was burning and he was shouting for pleas to make it stop. His eerie red glow was gone. I shoved his face into the wet pavement and quickly smothered the flames with the aid of my powers.

I thought Alex had free this guy and I'd saved him, but when he looked up at me his eyes were glowing and filled with hate. His newly scorched face only added to the effect. Before I could stab, He gave me a shoved to the chest that went beyond his own physical strength. I flew backward, crashing into another wall and sliding down it.

He advanced toward me, fire in his hands. I got to my feet and readied my weapon. I deflect his first fireball with my sword and used a water barrier to stop the second before charging. My strike was imed perfectly at his neck. He had no sword or shield, it should have been cake. Instead, it bounced off some unseen shield.

I stabbed, and a similar effect occurred.

"Gotcha," Urunos's voice teased. I was lifted into the air, choking.

Before he could lift me out of sword range though, and sliced again. Lifting me must've diverted power from protecting himself, because the sliced did the job. The body collapsed to the ground, dead and free of Urunos.

"I got you," I shot back.

Up in the sky, Alex was pulverizing anything that got close to her. When five people surrounded her, she roared and lightning shot out in every direction, striking everyone in the chest and sending their smoking corpses to the ground.

Meanwhile, the soldiers and I were on the ground fighting anything that slipped past her, which wasn't much in this area. The bullets of the soldiers were often stopped mid-flight with telekinesis, but they were good distractions. While they kept anything that came our way busy with gunfire, I would move in and take the killing blow.

Suddenly, Alex cried out in pain. I looked up and watched in horror as she fell from the sky, and immediately deserted the battle to go catch her. There were many shouts of protest from the soldiers, but I didn't much care at the moment.

I ran, found a car, jumped off its roof, and caught her in my arms before we both fell to the ground. She came to wrapping her arms around my neck. "So…cold…"

I had to get her out of here. She was in no condition to fight anymore. Whatever burst of power had gone through her had passed away, big time. The van was the safest place I could think of, but as I turned to go, there were shouts of help from the soldiers.

"Go…t-they need…need help," Alex said, even as she tightened her grip around my neck.

"So do you," I said, still carrying her.

"I'll be f-fine," she shivered out. "Go."

"I…"

"Go!"

Her eyes flared with a red glow as she shouted, and I reluctantly set her down behind the relative cover of a car before taking off. _Please be okay when I get back…_


	32. The Split is Complete

_**1136:Okay, few things right off the back. The technical difficulties with the Colors of War preview are straightened out now. 002 and 003 are off on their honeymoon to who knows where (My money is on the Canadian wilderness.) Next, We're going to leave you hanging on details about Jacob and Alex's fight and switch over to Henry and Roxanne. Go ahead, be annoyed.**_

Henry's POV

"Fleeing masses at twelve o'clock!" Roxanne shouted as we sprinted in their direction.

"How do you know what time it is?" I asked as I drew my trident. "I mean seriously, I don't see a watch, and you can't look at the sun to tell because of the—"

"Twelve o'clock means in front of us!" she yelled.

"Oh!" I said, getting it. Kinda. No, I really didn't get it. "Then why didn't you say that?"

"Shut up!"

One of the nearby buildings finally crumbled under the stress, and a chunk fell straight toward the crowd of people. I hefted my trident, aimed, and threw it like a javelin. It hit the chunk of concrete with resounding force and broke it to pieces, falling harmlessly to the ground. Well, one person who got hit in the head would probably have a concussion, but he wasn't going to DIE or anything like that…probably….eh, he'd live a few more hours anyway. What do I care after that?

The people stared in shock at the sky, not believing what had happened. The enslaved, burning husks that were supposedly former mortals began to emerge, like wolves descending on a flock of sheep. Hey, that's a pretty good line. I should use that the next time I go to school.

Roxanne drew her swords from their sheaths on her back and jumped, slicing one out of the air before it could tackle an innocent woman to the ground. Another came at Roxanne arms blazing, but Roxanne blocked the swipe and stabbed it through the chest, causing it to vanish in a puff of smoke and embers.

I rolled onto the scene in style, picking up my trident as I did so. Wading in and around the crowd of screaming civilians, I got to work smacking, stabbing, and all around ass-kicking anything everything these things had to throw at us.

Suddenly, I heard a car horn from _above_ me. I looked up, saw the car that had been telekinetically thrown our way, and whimpered, "Mommy." I hefted my trident in a downward swipe, cleaving the car clean in two and sending the pieces flying in opposite directions around the majority of the people I was trying to protect. But, it was a crowded space. One person was crushed.

Roxanne let out a battle cry and continued to tear into enemy ranks as they came from every direction. They ran through the streets, crawled up from the sewers, descended from the sky. They came from everywhere. And there were a ton of them.

"C'mon!" I shouted to the screaming mortals who were watching Roxanne and I fight our butts off. "Don't just stand there, get moving!"

They got the hint, and took off running. Mine and Roxanne's job changed from fighting endless waves of enemies and turned into a sort of protect the mob of people type thing. Roxanne was defending the left flank, and I had right. It was a daunting task for two people, but we were holding up.

Until we caught sight of two people on a rooftop, screaming as the burning husks advanced on them. I exchanged a glance with Roxanne, asking _Should we help them?_

She shrugged, which I could tell meant _It's your ass._

I jumped on to side of the building and started climbing. It was just like the rock wall back home, easier even. But I was only halfway up when the woman on the roof lifted up her child and shouted "Someone catch my baby!"

"No, no, no!" I shouted, but the woman dropped the little girl just before a set of charcoal skinned hands grabbed her shoulders. The kid screamed as she fell, and I had to push off the wall and jump out to catch her. She kept screaming as I wrapped my arms around her small little body and turned mid air so that when we hit the ground, I'd be the one taking the impact.

Just before we hit the ground though, it occurred to me. _This is going to hurt._ Before I could roll again and make it so I would land on the little girl in my arms, my back connected with the pavement.

Enslaved mortals leapt off the roof, surrounding me in seconds. I could vaguely hear people screaming, Roxanne voice shouting something. But I couldn't respond. The little girl sat on my chest and furiously shook my shoulders, telling him to get up. But I couldn't move, something had frozen up in me.

One of the Enslaved picked up the girl, who was by now kicking and screaming and crying. She hit the thing in the face, and it dropped her. She tried running to me again, but another of those things picked her up.

_No. _I fumbled, grabbing my trident off the ground, and staggered to my feet. Raising it, I glared at the monster holding the girl. "Let her go."

The thing made a strange, gargled noise that sounded vaguely like laughter, and bared its sharp teeth. It was hard to imagine that this…thing in front of me had once been human.

"Let her go," I repeated. "Now."

When it didn't do as I said, I stabbed it in the chest. The girl fell to the floor as the hands holding her disappeared, and the other freaks attacked. I spun, stabbed, dodged, and swung, and they were just a bad, ugly memory.

The girl was in the fetal position, murmuring something I couldn't hear. I lifted her up and over one shoulder before running her back to the main horde of civilians Roxanne and I were escorting. It was still only ten or twelve people, but a lot when you had to defend them all from an attacking army of…its.

Roxanne sliced the head off another would be attacker. "What took you so long?"

"Aw, miss me?" I joked, fighting one handed as my left arm cradle the little girl tight against me. She was heavy though, to say the least. Demigod strength or not, I couldn't keep this up forever.

"Not even. What's with the girl?"

"Her mom's dead, didn't see a dad. She won't let go," I summarized quickly. "Think you can pry her off? I can't fight like this forever."

"You can't fight period," Roxanne said. She jumped into the air and shifted her wait so she was spinning like a horizontal tornado. Her swords sliced into an enemy in rapid succession, and it was a puff of smoke by the time she landed gracefully on her feet. "And it'll have to wait!"

A large bus skidded across the street we were traveling down, running over several of the enslaved before crashing into a building. I sighed and, still carrying the little girl, ran toward the bus. Using my trident as a crowbar, I pried off the smashed doors. People immediately started to jump out, screaming and panicking.

One of them had the sense to come to me, thank gods. I wasn't about to spend twenty minutes chasing a flock of panicked civilians. It'd probably just end with us all running into a trap and getting killed. Kinda like when you play Pac Man and you're trying to eat the ghost before it turns back to normal, but by the time you get close enough it can eat you now.

I'm losing my train of thought. The point being, I was glad this guy, the leader by the looks of him, had the sense to talk instead of run.

"You…what are you doing here? Are you the one causing this?" he asked.

"No, I'm trying to save your asses before we all get blown to Kingdom Come the fun way!" I explained. I'd never taken mortal accusations well…

"Look, that crash just wrecked our van, and we don't stand a chance on foot," he explained. "Can you help us?"

"I've kinda already got—" But when I turned to point at Roxanne and the group of people we'd found, they were gone. She ditched me! That jerkette…

"Nevermind then…yeah, we're evacuating people now. If you can keep your people organized and moving, I'll keep these creeps off your backs." I agreed.

"Alright," the man said. "Everyone! We need to move now, or we're gone for sure!"

"One more thing!" I added as they began their trek. I heft the girl I was carrying his direction. "Carry this for me?"

He took it, I got both hands back around my trident, and ran to catch up with the group. There were roughly five or six people total, smaller than the group Roxanne was with now. Splitting up hadn't been the plan, but it was looking like that was what was going to happen…

_**If you'll notice carefully, the four are now all split up. If that's not a recipe for disaster I don't know what is. Within the next couple of chapters, we're going to be saying hi to an old friend. Can you guess who it is? His username is Crooked1_234. I'm serious.**_


	33. The Reunion Begins

_**1136: Those two are STILL gone…Anyway, if you want the story of how those two went out on a mission and came back married, check out the story on 003's FictionPress account. I still can't believe how much I missed out on. Anyway, this is a chaotic chapter of battles, angst, revelation, and survival mixed in with a little dang-it-we-lost syndrome.**_

_***banging on the door* 003, come out with your hands up!**_

_**1136: Oh crud, not these loons again…**_

Jacob's POV

I didn't mean for it to happen. I honestly didn't. But…and would never have forgiven myself if anything had happened…I left Alex behind.

It was a mistake. I ran to help the soldiers, and it wasn't long before the attacking horde was dispatched. But then more showed up, like a wall blocking my way back to Alex. The soldiers open fired, and I hacked away at the ones who either got too close or were smart enough to block the bullets.

Even so, bit by bit we were forced back, away from her. I was screaming her name endlessly as we fought, but those things kept coming. One soldier went down, screaming as he was taken over. Then another, and another.

"Fall back!" I shouted. The soldiers turned and ran, and I had full intention of running back for Alex.

But one of those things caught me by surprise with a fireball. I hacked away, dispatching that one. But another hit him in the back, sending me crashing into a car and denting its door. The alarm went off and its lights flashed as those things surrounded me. It was about then I blacked out.

When I came to again, I was being carried by a soldier who was screaming at the others to "KEEP RUNNING!" as soldier after soldier fell. The guy carrying must've been hit, because he cried out and fell to the floor, dropping him as he did.

I rolled across the pavement and sprang up to my feet, sword drawn in an instant. One particularly blackened and fiery looking thing charged at me, flames sputtering from its mouth as it growled. I blocked the fireball with my sword and countered with a quick, clean swipe that turned the thing to ashes and embers.

My head felt heavy and my back was killing me, but I owed these things the beating of a life time. Slice after slice, blow after blow. No amount of fire, numbers or brute strength was going to keep me back. Even when one knocked me to the ground, he paid dearly for it.

I pushed back the horde, and the soldiers who were still standing got a moment to catch their breath. One was excited enough to cheer. How bad had the situation been while I was out?

"Status," I demanded. Hopefully they knew by now they should listen to me.

"Five still fighting," one soldier said. "But we're low on ammo."

"We ain't gonna last long," another voiced.

"We have to get out of this city before the whole place is destroyed with us in it," I said. As if to capitalize my statement, a weakened building finally gave way under the stress, shook, and crumbled down out of view. A small series of explosions quickly followed.

The soldiers were all soaked by now. Their uniforms wet, heavy, and sagging. I was still dry (Thank you Poseidon.), but even I was feeling cold by now. We began the relatively fast run out of the city, but a geyser of water shooting into the air caught my attention. Thrown into the air by the geyser were several charcoal skinned bodies, who promptly puffed into non existence upon impact with the ground.

The source of the geyser was just around the corner, the next street over. _Henry_. My mind flashed to the others. Alex, Henry, Roxanne…I had to regroup with them. Who knows what they were dealing with.

Henry gave a battle cry and ran another freak through with his trident. "How many of these things are there?" He bashed another one across the head before stabbing it in the neck, killing it. He was panting hard, His group had lost another body, but so far they were still progressing. Still headed out of the city. Why did there have to be so many?

A woman screamed as several of the burning corpses descended upon her. Henry ran, desperate to save her. But even he knew he was already too late.

Roxanne slashed, taking another down. Then she gave one a hard kick before throwing it into another, causing both of them to vanish into embers on impact. She let out a ferocious cry and charged another small horde attacking the left flank.

Seconds later, as she ran the last one through with her sword and sliced into its neck before it could vanish, another group came to attack the front. Roxanne jumped to meet them, pushing off a civilians back to use it like a springboard.

She hit the charcoal skinned beast with a flying kick before quickly dealing with its friends. Roxanne was unstoppable, more of a lethal vector than a living being. She even laughed once or twice. Her muscles ached, she had scrapes and bruises and despite her best efforts she continued to lose more civilians. But there was a never ending supply of enemies to slaughter. She'd heard people call this rapidly decaying city hell on earth. For Roxanne, it was high heaven.

Alex curled up, shivering. _I'm not going to die…_she thought weakly. _I'm not going to die…_ Rain had soaked her clothes and made her skin cold and clammy. She tried to move, but her strength failed her. When she'd lost control…when she'd given in to that darker her…

It had been amazing. The power, the feeling of finally being able to cut loose. There was no holding back, no worry. Just her, plenty of anger, and plenty of targets to take it out on. But then Jacob got hurt.

She tried to heal him, her new found power could do that, but it was as if his body rejected the healing. Instead of a seamless, smoothly healed wound, instead there was an ugly, cauterized scar. That was when she'd realized. This power she'd been given, it was an always would be evil, no matter what she used it for. _No, not given…cursed with. It's a curse, not a blessing. Never forget that._

**What makes you so sure? **The new voice teased. It sounded so much like her. But it wasn't her. It was that dark, unrestricted her Urunos had created inside her. What she could become if she let it happen. **What makes you so certain I'm the bad guy? Does it really matter how you do a job, as long as it gets done?**

_Shut up! _Alex ordered. _Shut up! Shut up! SHUT! UP!_

But Dark Alex didn't listen. **We want the same things Alex. You want respect, and so do I. You don't want to die, and neither do I. You want Jacob, and so do I. Give in Alex. Give me control, and I can give you everything you want. With my power, we could do it.**

_It's not your power! _Alex resisted. _It's Urunos's. I'll NEVER give in to him._

**Urunos may have made me, Alex. But he did it using a piece of you too. **The voice was so confusing, so convincing, so tempting that Alex had to at least hear it out. **Do you really think I'd let him order me around? Give me control, and we'll have everything we ever wanted.**

"No," Alex's trembling body whispered out loud. She knew it was a trap, that the voice served Urunos and that the moment she gave in he won. She wasn't going to let that happen, even if it cost her her life.

Fighting off Urunos and Dark Alex's influence was sapping her strength, her will, and maybe even her soul. It was too much for her.

There were sounds of battle, coming towards her. She still couldn't move, but the Hybrid girl prayed that either whoever was coming saved her, or at the very least gave her a mercifully quick death.

I jumped off the roof I'd scaled, falling towards Henry and his small crowd of civilians. A creature shot forward, and I tackled it out of the sky as I fell. We rolled across the pavement, and I managed to slit its throat.

Henry spun toward me with a look of disbelief. The soldiers appeared soon after, firing on other enemies and turning the air into a cloud of embers.

"Jacob these people aren't going to last much longer, we need a faster way to get them out of here!" Henry shouted over the storm.

"Command set up an FOB not far from here," one of the soldiers spoke up. "If it's still standing, we should be able to get a transport out of here!"

"Roxanne is still somewhere in the city, she has another group with her!" Henry added. "I'm not leaving without her!"

"We're all getting out of here," I assured him. I turned to the soldier, "Get these people to those transports and get the Hades out of here, this place is lost. Henry, go with them, they'll never make it alone!"

"What are you going to do?" Henry called as I walked away.

"I'm going back for Alex," I said quietly.

The ground was slick with water. I'd once tried this on the ocean, and was pretty sure there was enough water for it to work now. I got a running start, jumped, and when I landed I shot across the watery surface of the city like my shoes were jet skis.

The city flashed by as I followed my memory back to where I'd left Alex. But as I splashed to a halt, she was gone. No trail to follow, no signs of struggle, no clue as to where she might be. She was just gone.

"No…" I groaned, falling to my knees. "No, no, no!"

I slammed my fist into the ground, and the earth shook slightly in response. I just stayed there, not believing this. The guilt alone was tearing me apart. _I never should've left her. I should've gotten out her here, let the soldiers fend for themselves. I should've…_

My self-pity was interrupted, by an explosion, a building crumbling, and another scream that resounded over the storm.

"For Ares!" a voice shouted.

That had to be Roxanne. I pushed myself up to my feet, splashed across the start of the flood waters, and then resumed gliding across the water at the speeds that made my surroundings blur. The sounds of battle only got easier to follow.

As I skidded around a corner, I saw Roxanne holding her own against the largest horde I'd seen yet, and still protecting a huge group of civilians.

"Anytime you want to jump in Alex, go ahead!" she shouted over her shoulder.

_Alex?_ My shoulder started to burn as I surged forward, letting out a determined roar. I slashed, cutting down three enemies at once. I jumped up to met one who dove at me in a flying tackle, and kicked it in the face hard enough to turn it to embers.

By the time I'd landed, I'd dodged three fireballs thrown my way. I swung my sword in a wide arc, and a crescent of water was launched forward, mowing down advancing enemies. I stabbed my sword into the ground, and a geyser of water shot out of the crack and actually bore a hole through the chest of a charcoal skinned beast about to possess another innocent.

That was when I caught sight of Alex, and three beasts dragging her away.

"No one touches her!" I shouted, but I didn't even recognize my voice. By now, my shoulder felt like it was on fire, and the sensation was spreading down my arm. I didn't notice, or care. I was not going to let them take her.

I aimed my sword, and three jet streams of water shot out with lethal precision. The enemies who'd been trying to drag away Alex were nothing but a memory now, and in an instant I was at her side. She wasn't moving, but she looked alive. I place a hand to her forehead. Her skin was like ice.

The pain in my shoulder and arm slowly faded away as I cradled Alex. I was dimly aware of Roxanne finishing the last of the horde before walking up behind me.

"I found her like that while moving these people through the city," Roxanne explained.

I didn't take my eyes away from Alex as I told Roxanne, "Henry is with some soldiers, headed for a base they have that might still be up. If you can get your people there, there should be a ride out for them."

"Okay, and how do I find this base of milk and honey?" Roxanne asked.

I sighed, aimed Miz at the sky, and let loose a torrent of water into the sky. It was a few seconds before another one went up elsewhere in the city.

"There," I said. "Go there now before Zeus and Urunos tear this place apart."

"And you?" Roxanne asked.

"I'm getting Alex back to the van, we'll meet you guys back at camp," I said. "If we live that—"

Alex stirred in my arms, but when I turned to look at her eyes were glowing. Before I could react, she had me pinned against the wall with her hands on my shoulders.

_**1136: BUM BUM BUM! Will Jacob become a slave of Urunos? Will Alex find a way to free herself before its too late? Will they make it out of the city in time? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	34. The Crooked One Returns

_**1136: When 003 gets back I am going to *dodges bullet* beg him to help me get these guys off my back! I'M NOT 003! HE'S ON HIS HONEYMOON! *dodges again* I'M JUST THE SIDEKICK!**_

Percy walked, Thalia, Annabeth, and Nico close behind him. Heart heavy and sporting a defeated gait, Percy reached the edge of Tartarus. Hades stood waiting for them.

"I shouldn't be doing this." he said.

"Too late now," Hades told him, looking out into the depths of Tartarus. "Do you really want to break a sacred oath?"

"I wouldn't be the first," Percy said, hating himself. He hated being such a tool. He hated the sick irony of what he was doing. Most of all, he hated Kronos. "I should just turn around right now, and forget this stupid, stupid plan."

The others seemed to agree, and turned to leave. Before any of them could make it very far. Skeleton guards stepped in front of them to block their path. Nico didn't even bother trying to order them to stand down. The command of Hades overruled the command of his son.

"Sacred oath is a sacred oath Jackson," Hades said. "And I'm not going against Athena."

Percy slowly let out a breath. _I shouldn't be doing this._ Percy stepped forward, waiting for the inevitable. _I really shouldn't be doing this._ The Pit of Tartarus began to rumble. _Just walk away Percy. Just walk away._

"Percy…Jackson…" a familiar voice said, its tone intrigued. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

Percy felt his pulse elevate along with his anger. But he kept his cool, and kept his mouth shut for now. If he was going to do this, it would be better to let Kronos get out all his contempt now rather than have to listen to it during the whole ordeal.

"How _are _you these days Jackson? I don't get much news down here, as you can imagine."

"Can we just cut to why I'm here?" Percy asked, annoyed already.

"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" Kronos's voice laughed from deep within the Pit. "Tell me Jackson, what part about our times together do you hate the most? That I destroyed everything you tried to protect, or that your so called best friend worked for _me_ all along?"

"I don't know," Percy countered. "What was the worst part about losing to me? That you actually tasted victory over the gods only to have it snatched away, or that in the end I still came out on top no matter how hard you tried?"

"Well someone is in a touchy mood," Kronos jibbed. "You must've come here for a reason Jackson, otherwise Hades wouldn't have allowed this. How are you son?"

"Don't call me that," Hades said coldly.

"Well, no one seems to be in a good mood today," Kronos's voice joked. Percy bristled at Kronos's demeanor. The Lord of Time knew he wasn't scary anymore, so he was instead purposely being as aggravating as possible. He knew exactly what to say to take all the hate Percy had forgotten and bring it to the surface.

"What did you do with that daughter of Athena anyway? She betrayed you, and then she betrayed me. I'd say that puts her right in the middle, yes? Probably in the Fields of Asphodel right now, milling around with nothing to do for eternity. I'd imagine her little mind hates that."

"Shut up," Percy snapped. "Don't you dare act like you know justice."

"Sent to Elysium then?" Kronos asked. "Now there's something I didn't expect…"

When Percy didn't immediately respond, Kronos pieced it together. A laugh echoed from the depths of Tartarus. "You gods, dangerous as you like to act you're all soft. She's alive isn't she? That's probably not the only the reward she received either. Which of her 'heart's desires' did you grant her, hm? Oh it doesn't matter, this is just too good. A council of spineless fools, that's what the Olympians are."

"Do you want to know why I'm here or not?" Percy interrupted. He was already regretting this more than he had before the conversation had started.

"Yes, yes, go on, waste my time with whatever it is you came here for," Kronos said, bored now. "It beats the depths of Tartarus, I'll give you that."

The words got stuck in Percy's throat. Did he really have to say them? Maybe he could convince Kronos without actually having to say _the words_. He could do it…right? Who was he kidding, he'd been given the nickname 'Seaweed Brain for a reason'.

"We…" Percy began, and choked on his words again.

"Well? Out with it already, this is beginning to be worse than eternity in a Pit with nothing to do," Kronos said. "You're wasting my time Jackson. For an immortal, that's saying something."

"Weneedyourhelp," Percy said, his words slurred.

"…what was that?"

"We…need…your help," Percy said, feeling truly defeated.

Another roaring laugh. Kronos's mockery knew know bounds now. "I take it back Jackson. This is without a doubt, the best news I've _ever _gotten. Before I refuse I have to know, what is it? You want to know some ancient secret of the Titans? You need to go back in time to undo a mistake you made? What?"

"Urunos is free," Percy said.

For once, the Lord of Time shut up. A low rumbled reverberated through the Underworld. "If you came here to practice bad jokes, I'll tell you right off the back that wasn't funny."

"Urunos has escaped, and he wants to destroy everything in revenge for what was done to him," Percy repeated. "We can't stop him…and we need your help."

"…Athena is as smart as legend claims," Kronos said after a moment.

"What?"

"She had to know that I would never agree to aid Olympus, not even in the slightest of ways…unless you made it worth my while," Kronos said, like he piecing it all together. "And she knew that the only way I would ever agree is if someone I despised came and _begged_."

"If you expect to hear me to beg, you'll be sorely disappointed," Percy said.

"The great Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, Scorn of the Minotaur, Slayer of Medusa, Savior of Olympus and my own personal Annoyance…asking me for help. It's almost too good to be true. And you even picked a common enemy," Kronos said. "Athena really did think of everything. Well, almost everything."

"What do you want?"

"Oh, you're good," Kronos said. "Don't worry it's nothing major…I want a statue on Olympus, erected in my honor for helping you."

"Go to Hades!" Annabeth shouted, speaking up.

"Been there, done that," Kronos laughed. "That's my offer. I don't get that, and you'll be fighting Urunos on your own. Give me that, and you have my help. After all, the enemy of my enemy is…my temporary ally."

Percy looked at Hades, who just shrugged. Fighting back self-hate, Percy agreed. "Done."

"I'm going to need more than your word, Jackson," Kronos said. "Swear on the River Styx."

"I'm beginning to hate oaths…" Nico muttered.

Percy swore, and then said, "My turn. Swear on the River Styx that you won't betray us, and that as soon as this is over you go right back where we dragged you out of."

The oath was made. Percy added, "You even think about double-crossing us, and Riptide will be the last sensation you feel."

"Preceded by the helm, trident, and master bolt I'm sure," Kronos said, now, if my dear old boy would be so kind as to do the honors…"

Hades drew his sword. The Key of Hades embedded in the hilt became even blacker, and the air grew colder. The air above the pit of Tartarus shimmered, and the four demigods looked away. There was a ripple of wind, and everything was silent.

When Percy looked back, standing in front of him was Kronos himself. The Lord of Time flexed his fingers, which he had not seen or felt in years. He smiled. "This is going to be fun…"

_**Whoever can find the Halo reference in one of Percy's lines gets 100 points.**_

_**1136: Phew. Lost 'em. What will happen now that Kronos is free? Will the team led by Jacob survive? What's it going to be like when Jacob meets his great grandpa/great-great grandpa? And what about Alex? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	35. The Battle for Jacob

_**003: We're back! With bad news… I've got some family matters to take care of in a place with no internet, so until Wednesday there will be no more updates. I'm going to try and update again today to give you more to read while I'm gone, and as usual there will be some kind of reward for your patience. Until then, enjoy the chapter.**_

Jacob's POV

I wasn't sure where I was. I just knew I wasn't fighting Urunos's army in a crumbling city anymore. I was in…I don't know. It was dark, and empty. Then, standing in front of me, seeming to materialize out of the void, was Alex. Her eyes were completely black, like her real eyes had been replaced with ebony marbles. And they glowed with the same red aura that everyone enslaved by Urunos gave off.

The eerie red glow radiated from her entire body, and black electricity crackled across her body freely. She was wear a gray shirt and black, frayed pants that had a ton of holes and tears in them. She extended her hand out to me, and a single bolt of black and red lightning shot out, striking me in the chest.

I fell to my knees and screamed in pain as Alex kept the pressure on. A cold chill began to set in on my chest. It felt like something was pushing its way into my head and shoving my own self aside to make room. Alex.

She'd grabbed me by the shoulders before I'd ended up in this wacked out limbo where there was nothing but black. This must be what it felt like when Urunos took over.

Suddenly, a confused look spread across Alex's glowing face, and she screamed for a moment. She vanished, replaced by Urunos and…Alex. But not the possessed Alex who'd just tried to kill me. The real Alex. My Alex.

Urunos lashed out with his powers, and I screamed again as I felt him continue to try and overwhelm my will.

"Stop!" Alex shouted. "Stop it!"

"Get him off her!" Roxanne shouted, running to pull Alex off of Jacob.

The daughter of Ares grabbed Alex's wrists and pulled, but Alex's grip held firm and Roxanne only got a quick zap as a reward for her efforts. "Styx!"

Alex's whole body was practically burning with that red glow, and a faint blue glow was shining from under the shoulder of Jacob's shirt.

Roxanne got two people to help her carry Jacob and Alex with them to the base. All the while, Alex's unresponsive body maintained and iron grip on Jacob's equally limp shoulders.

I want to say I defiantly resisted Urunos to the bitter end. Instead, I curled into a ball and shuddered and screamed, waiting for it to be over.

Alex tried to charge Urunos, but she was stopped mid stride as chains materialize around her wrists and jerked her back. Helpless, she watched as Urunos poured his energies into me. She struggled, pulling against the chains, but to no avail.

"Stop! Don't do it!" she begged.

"What could you do to stop me?" Urunos laughed. "No one can stop this. You are far more stubborn than he, and even you cannot resist my power."

"You don't have control of me yet," Alex protested, straining against the chains again. "I won't let you use me to take him!"

Alex pulled hard against the chains, and they actually broke. She tackled Urunos fearlessly, and there was a brief flash. Then, instead of Urunos torturing me, it was Dark Alex again.

"It's for the best Jacob," she said, pausing briefly in her onslaught. I went into a series of shivers. I tried crawling away, but I felt the shock of Urunos's energies hit my spine and sprawled across the floor as he tried again to take over.

I could feel my will, my strength, being sucked away. But, like Alex, I knew I had to resist.

"When you join us, you'll finally understand me," she said as I screamed in pain. "What it feels like to have to resist him, to have to resist yourself."

"Alex this isn't you," I pleaded through clenched teeth.

"You're right, not entirely," Dark Alex laughed. "But it's not all Urunos either, remember. I'm both of them. And soon, you're going to feel what that's like."

"No…" I tried. "I won't let that happen."

"What are you going to do Jacob?" she asked. "What can you do?"

"What can you do?" Roxanne asked.

"Me? Why me?" Henry asked, looking at his two glowing friends. Alex was glowing grayish red all over her body, especially her eyes which were wide open. Jacob's eyes were squeezed shut, but intracite tattoos running the length of his arm glowed a bright sea blue. I pulled his sleeve back to get a look at the rest of it.

The lines of the tattoo all lead back to a trident on Jacob's shoulder, which was glowing brightest out of all the tattoo's lines as they went down his arm.

"When did he get these?" Roxanne asked.

"Um…got me?" Henry said, helpless.

_Jacob._ A voice echoed in my more and more crowded head. _Jacob, my grandson. _

_Poseidon? _I asked, my whole body suddenly numb to the pain. I blinked and saw that a wall of water was blocking Dark Alex from trying to force Urunos onto me.

_You must resist his control. _

"I can't," I said. "He's too strong."

_No Jacob. You are too strong. If you were not, he would already have control by now. But you are too powerful for Urunos to forcefully possess. Try as he might, he will not take you unless you willingly offer yourself._

"Is that so?" Dark Alex spoke up. "Let me make you an offer than Jacob. Accept the curse of Urunos, join the winning side, and Urunos will release Alex from his control."

"What?" I gasped in disbelief. This was it, the chance I'd been waiting for to free Alex. And all it would cost me was my free will.

_No! _Poseidon warned. _Alex's life is not worth yours Jacob. _

The problem was, that it was to me. Resisting Urunos was tearing Alex apart on the inside. I'd sworn to do whatever it took to free her. Whatever it took included this.

_Jacob, if you allow yourself to be taken all hope will be lost, _Poseidon warned. _You have been blessed with power beyond that of any before you. You can free yourself._

"What about Alex?" I asked. It sounded like a pretty selfish idea. Free myself and let Alex suffer. But if Poseidon was right…if losing me meant losing the war…could I sacrifice my friend for the good of the world?

_I'm sorry Jacob, but you can only free yourself. _

That should've settled it for me. I was just about to give in, to let Urunos have me in exchange for Alex, but Poseidon added something else.

_If you stay strong, if you fight and win, you'll free Alex and everyone else. You can save everything Jacob. But only if you don't give in now._

I looked at Dark Alex through the water barrier. Somewhere in there was my best friend. Maybe I couldn't save her just yet. But I could help her.

"Alex, if you can hear me in there," I said, reaching out to the real Alex. "I'm sorry."

I felt a searing pain in my shoulder, but it almost felt good in a way. I looked to my shoulder to see the tattoo of a trident Poseidon had given me when I was ten. But…there was more to it now. Intracite lines traced down from the trident all the way across my arm, and a few came back up to encircle the trident. The whole design was glowing, bright blue.

Jacob's eyes shot open, glowing like the tattoos on his arm. Henry and Roxanne jumped back. "Okay! Something's happening!" Henry shouted. "Something is definitely happening!"

"Pull them apart!" Roxanne shouted.

She grabbed Alex, and Henry grabbed Jacob. The two pulled, but only received a shock as reward for trying. They both fell to the floor, although Henry looked a little more charred than Roxanne.

"Get out of my head!" I shouted, and the barrier of water protecting me dropped. Dark Alex tried to tackle me, but I avoided her.

"And let go of her!" I added.

Twin jet streams of water shot out of the darkness, and both hit Dark Alex. A moment later, she was replaced by two people, Urunos and the real Alex.

My eyes shot opened and I gasped for air. Alex was in front of me, doing the same thing. When we finally caught our breath, the first thing she did was pull me into a tight hug. I returned it just as fiercely.

"Alex, I'm so—"

"Save it," she interrupted. "You did the right thing."

"Did we miss something?" Henry asked.

Alex and I broke apart, and I realized Alex and I were in a crowded truck of people, wind and rain buffeting the exterior. Alex and I must've been out for a while…

"Where are we?" I asked. "And how'd we get here?"

"Well, when Alex grabbed you, you two just froze up and started glowing. I had to get you back to the army base, load you up on the transport with me, Henry, and some of the people we rescued from town."

"I'd say we'll be clearing the city limits soon," Henry added. "We saved lives and gave Urunos a kick in the pants. If the mortals take notice, I'd say we did our job. If not, then we went through all that trouble for nothing."

"Jacob," Alex spoke up. "When did you get those?"

I looked down at my arm where she was pointing. The tattoos were still there. They were dark blue now, and they weren't glowing, but they were there. It was like that trident tattoo on my shoulder had spread like a rash.

"I…don't really know," I admitted. "But I kinda like 'em."

_**If you didn't know, the attacks by Urunos and Dark Alex and the conversation with Poseidon and all that other weird stuff happens inside Jacob's head. It was a battle for his mind and body, why not write it out like that? **_

_**I'm going to try and get a second chapter up before I have to leave. No promises though. See you guys when I get back.**_


	36. Kronos Meets His Grandkids

**_1136: Well, that went well. We haven't changed in five days, haven't showered in four, and I fell into so many quick sand pits that I've got sand coming out of my sand. I hate your family reunions._**

**_003: *cracks spine* So they got a little carried away..._**

**_002: A little? They-_**

**_003: Would you look at that! We're back on Tuesday! As a reward for all of your patience, there will be a second chapter up later today. Woo hoo for that. I'll probably think of some other way to pay you guys back for your patience...just not today._**

Alex's POV

I really hoped Jacob wasn't beating himself up over not sacrificing himself to free me. When I'd made that offer— No, it wasn't me. I couldn't think of that dark, twisted version as me. I had to keep us separate. I needed something to clear my head, but it was hard to do when your head alternately had either an evil primordial god in it or a dark twisted version of yourself.

Finally coming back home was a good start though. All I can say is, news travels fast. By the time the four of us broke off from the caravan of trucks fleeing Urunos's path of destruction and got back to camp, news of what we'd done had gotten to the people who needed to hear it.

Jacob had gotten what he'd wanted. An army of mortals, under _his_ command. Sure, he'd still have to work with their own leaders, but he was the strategist, the head honcho now. Rae I'm sure was eating that up.

The mortal soldiers making preparations and bases outside and around camp's borders would salute him if he walked by, and everyone gave him a bit more respect than before. Even Roxanne stopped tripping him when he walked past.

But to me, he was still just Jacob. The Smart One who would sacrifice his freedom and the fate of the world to help me if I let him. His fatal flaw was more obvious than a Minotaur in a shopping mall.

Jacob, surprisingly, wasn't letting it go to his head either. Leading the an army at thirteen, proclaimed by Poseidon to be more powerful than any other half-blood either now or before, so much glory thrust his way, and he didn't seem to notice. If it had been me, I'd be gloating until I was blue in the face. And then I'd _keep _gloating.

But I'd probably get us all killed if I was in the lead.

All the people who'd made it onto the trucks had survived, but they were it. The rest of the city, people, buildings, pets…gone. New York was up next, we all knew. And when that happened…it wouldn't be pretty.

And there was more bad news. More, _very_ bad news that made us question everything we thought we knew about our family, and their history.

Urunos was a day out at most. The whole situation was like a time bomb, waiting to explode. The gods had gone out again, as many as able, to back up Zeus and slow Urunos down. Jacob was off in the command tent going over the plan with the mortal leaders who would have to pass the orders onto their troops, the others at camp were off doing their own thing, preparing or continuing repairs to camp.

I went for a walk, trying to keep my head clear. I was walking down the fireworks beach, the scent of seawater oddly comforting. I was idly drawing a skull in the sand with my sword when he came up behind me.

"You must be Alex di Angelo," he greeted. I spun on my heels, and recognized him instantly. He was the monster in all the scary stories my dad had told me as a little girl. The big villain who'd corrupted the son of Hermes, destroyed the Mist and imprisoned the gods.

"Kronos!" I shouted, staggering back and raising my sword. He just laughed.

"I have bested gods, child," he said. "You stand no chance."

"I'd rather die fighting, thanks," I shot back. "What do you want."

"You can lower your weapon, I'm actually here to help," Kronos said. I didn't buy into that for one minute. My grip tightened on my sword and there was a brief spark of electricity across my skin.

"Careful now, you don't want to lose control again," he warned.

My fury subsided and gave way to confusion. Did he know? Could he know? What was he even doing here? Uncle Percy had scattered him into nothing before I was even born. And why was he here? My head spun with questions and doubt, and I felt it. _Her, _trying to force her way to dominance. I shoved her attempt back down.

"You should be proud," Kronos said, folding his arms behind his back and looking over me in interest. "Few people possess the will to resist the control of an immortal. You're personalities have actually merged rather than struggled against each other."

"What do you want?" I said. I felt control waver again as fear crept through my mind. Why didn't he just attack me already? What was his game?

"I figured you might want a little more knowledge of what you're up against," he said. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be possible. Kronos was gone, and he wasn't coming back. This was all just a horrible dream and I was going to wake up any minute.

"What do you mean?"

"The curse you bear, di Angelo," Kronos clarified. "Your ability to resist is fueled by emotion, did you know? Love, courage, hope, other pointless things like that make it easier to stay in control. Now, you're more…negative emotions like anger, despair, fear, doubt…and jealousy. Those turn your will to nothing, and _will _lead to loss of control."

It was like he'd been stalking me. How he know about…everything? My grip on my sword loosened, and I felt a headache as Urunos made another push. He'd stopped directly trying to wrench control form my hands some time ago. Now, he tried to force the merge of our personalities, tried to force Dark Alex to come out.

My sword dropped into the sand and I fell to my knees, hands pressed against my temples. _Stay in control, stay in control, stay in control…._

**I can defeat Kronos, right here, right now. Let me have control.**

_No!_

"What would happen if you truly lost control?" Kronos pondered as I struggled against myself. "How many people do you think would die before you could regain control? That's assuming you even can at least. Think of all the people you would hurt. This boy Jacob I've heard about, what would happen if you hurt him, hm?"

_Don't let him get to you. _I thought futilely. _Don't let him do this…_

But it was too late. The fear of being this close to the Titan King, the anger that he was messing with my head, the doubt I had in myself, it all boiled over and suddenly—

I felt a cold tingle across my spine and my sword shot back into my hands as I rose to my feet, one thought on my mind: Destroy Kronos. I could see the reddish gray glow coming off my skin. The power was almost overwhelming…and I liked it.

"I don't know why you're here, or how you came back," I said, my voice echoing. "But I know how I'm getting rid of you."

Kronos just smiled. "I'm sure you do." His scythe flashed into his hands. "I won't say it isn't personal, but the fact is I need to get rid of Urunos's spy."

I realized everything he'd said was just a ploy to bring out my true self, and my true potential. He wanted to kill me, and get rid of Urunos's presence here. He was as dumb as the rest. He saw the glow and assumed I was under Urunos's sway. But the opposite was true. He was under mine. And I was going to prove it by tearing Kronos to pieces.

"You're going to find it won't be that easy," I snarled.

"Alex!" a voice shouted. Kronos and I both turned to the source. Jacob stood, staring at the two of us. A worried look spread across his face. He looked so weak when he was worried. I didn't like it much at all.

"Jacob…Jackson," Kronos said, the smile on his face huge. "You're Jackson's boy?"

"Kronos…" Jacob said slowly. His sword was out in under a second, and his face became one of anger. Now _that's _more like it. "Step away from her. Now."

"I think you should be more concern with yourself," Kronos said. "She doesn't seem to be fully in control of her actions. Could be prone to do any number of things."

"Like slit your throat," I hissed.

"Alex, back it down," Jacob cautioned as he took a step towards Kronos.

"And let you have all the fun?" my voice echoed. "I don't think so."

"Alex, he's goaded you into this and you walked right into it," Jacob said. "He wants an excuse to kill you, and you attacking him in a berserk would be all the excuse he needs. Just back it down."

"He didn't goad me into anything," I snapped. "And why are you protecting him? I could take him by myself. Either help or get out of the way."

"Alex, I'm not going to lose you to this monster," Jacob said. "You have to back it down."

I wasn't sure if he was talking about my true self that everyone seemed to hate so much or Kronos. Why did he want me to go back to that weak, fragile old me when I was so much better now? It didn't make sense. And yet, somewhere deep down, his words struck a cord.

"C'mon Alex come back to me," Jacob begged, his eyes moving between me and Kronos.

"I am Alex!" I snapped.

A voice inside my head argued. _No you're not!_

I felt a burning sensation suddenly rush up my spine, and I gasped, feeling the power leave my body. I staggered slightly, and Jacob ran up to my side just in time to catch me. He glared at Kronos again. "Leave. Now."

"I'm here to stay and you know it Jackson," Kronos laughed. "But if you really want some alone time with the spy—"

I looked away, and in a flash Kronos was gone. The cold sensation of Dark Alex taking over was gone, thank the gods. I'd come so close to rushing into a fight with Kronos, Hades I'd been an instant away from attacking Jacob. I realized Jacob was still holding me and shoved him away as I stood back on my own two feet.

"I'm…sorry," I said as I collected myself, "I don't know what happened. One second I was in control and the next…I wasn't. What was he doing here? Why didn't he just kill us?"

"Let's just say the gods got desperate," Jacob said, his face upset. "And my parents don't know how to say no."

Something was wrong. Something, I wasn't sure what yet, was very wrong.

**_Up next, Jacob has a "chat" with his parents. I wonder how THAT'S going to go. About as good as my aunt Vel meeting 1136._**

**_1136: She tied me to the train tracks! TRAIN TRACKS!_**

**_003: That means she likes you._**


	37. Sparks Literally Fly

Jacob's POV

To say I was mad would've been an understatement. I'd been furious enough when Mom and Dad had given me the bad news.

"We'll just have to trust our troops can handle it," I said confidently to the other officers. Someone behind me cleared their throat, and I turned to see my Mom and Dad standing at the entrance to the command tent wearing sad smiles.

"Excuse me," I said as maturely as possible, and left the tent. As soon as the tent flap shut, I wrapped my parents in a tight hug. "Mom! Dad! Gods it's good to see you guys!"

They returned the hug, but it felt…reluctant. After a second I pulled away, looking at them quizzically. "Is something wrong?"

"Jacob, there's something we have to tell you. It's about Urunos," my mom said, sounding almost ashamed.

My brow furrowed as my worry grew. "What? What is it?" My mind flashed a worst case scenario. "Is it Alex's parents? Did something happen to them?" Gods, if something had happened to either of those two, Alex would be devastated. She had enough to deal with without adding on a parent trouble.

"No, Nico and Thalia are fine," Percy said. "It's…you know that Zeus is fighting Urunos, and that he's not doing very good?"

"Yeah, but aren't some of the gods going back out to help?" I asked. That was the news I'd gotten through Hermes express anyway.

"Well, yes, but Athena has another plan in case the gods can't stop Urunos," my Mom explained. They way they reluctantly talked about this, it reminded me about the day I'd gotten the "birds and bees" from Dad.

"Which is?" I asked. I was already dreading the answer, and I didn't know what it was. Why though? It was a plan to stop Urunos. Why were my parents so against it?

"If the gods can't beat him, we can always ask help from the one who did," my Mom elaborated. For some people it wouldn't have been enough information to figure it out. Back when I'd first found out I was a demigod—and after the whole business of rescuing my parents from the Pit—I'd learned as much about Greek mythology as I possibly could. It was information that could save my life.

The only one ever in Greek mythology to beat Urunos was his son, the Titan King, Lord of Time, the gods, _Athena_, wanted to ask help from _him_? The last time he'd gotten free from Tartarus, Olympus had been destroyed, the Mist had been destroyed, mortals had been enslaved and demigods had been hunted to near extinction.

Athena wanted _that_?

"That's crazy," I said. "We'd be better off fighting on our own. Going to _him…_ that's just not happening."

My parents were silent, and I felt rocks in the pit of my stomach. I put two and two together. Their behavior, the plan… _No, no, no…no!_

"You didn't," I said, stepping back now as if my parents had some horrible disease. "Tell me you didn't. Tell me this is just a bad joke."

"Jacob…" my dad tried to explain.

"No!" I snapped. "Don't 'Jacob' me! How could you let them do this? This is Kronos! _Kronos_! After everything he's done to you, you let the gods talk you into asking him for help? Really?"

"Jacob, you don't understand—" my mother tried.

"No, I don't understand!" I said.

"We don't like it anymore than you do," Dad said.

"No, that's not true," I retorted. "Because if you didn't, you wouldn't have brought him back."

I stormed off. I couldn't even look at them. I couldn't _believe _what they'd done. I left needing to talk to someone about this. I thought about going to Rae, but stopped myself. I didn't want her to see me like this, angry and unstable and so incredibly powerless. Rae I could tell, needed to think I was always strong and always in control. But I needed someone who knew that was a lie. I needed to find Alex.

Then, I'd found her, Kronos' words eating away at her control. I completely forgot about my own problems, because now I had hers to deal with. For whatever reason, I drew my sword against the Titan King himself. My Dad, the greatest half-blood to ever live, had needed the full power of the Olympians to defeat him. I had the some Athena and some Poseidon. What made me think I had a chance, I don't know. But I do know I was going to make sure that if he got to Alex, it would be because he got through me first.

Somehow, I got through to the real Alex and got Kronos to leave. That was when my heart started pounding and my head kicked in. _Stupid! You could've gotten killed! You could've gotten _her _killed._ _Stupid!_

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"My parents…" I said. I actually laughed, like this whole thing was some sick joke Dionysus had planned out just to see if I would go screw loose. "My parents…the _greatest _half-blood of all time and the ultimate story of redemption who made names for themselves by freeing the world from Kronos' rule…they let a scared council of gods convince them it was a good idea to free Kronos, and _ask him for help_."

I laughed again, because if I took this seriously I wasn't going to have a breakdown. Or maybe that's what this was, a complete breakdown. All my life my parents had been my heroes. They done so much good in the world, were so well known and held so many grand titles. My Mom was the Architect of Olympus for gods' sake!

And now? It was like I couldn't even spit in their direction. Trying dealing with _that_. My heroes, my idols…had just made the stupidest mistake ever. Of all time.

"Can you believe it?" I chuckled. "Next thing, they'll be trying to sic Typhon on Urunos. Bet that'll work huh?"

I started to laugh more, when a sudden slap hit me across the face and my head jerked to the side. My senses came back to me as pain shocked me back into sanity.

"I needed that," I thanked Alex.

"I could tell," she said. "Not taking it so well?"

I sighed. "They were my heroes."

I sat down in the sand of the beach, feeling defeated. "My inspiration…and now look what they've done. When I was little, I used to think "I want to be just like daddy" or "Some day I'm going to be as smart as my mommy". I sure can pick good role models, can't I?"

Alex frowned, sitting down next to me. "Don't be too hard on them," she advised.

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked, staring out at the waves.

"They're just scared, and fear can make people do crazy things," Alex said. "Sometimes, when you're scared, you do things you wouldn't normally do."

I finally met her gaze. Her eyes shone with concern, something usually rare. But we were at war with an unstoppable god.

"I guess…" I submitted. "Fear is a powerful motivator…"

She scooted closer to me. Just barely, just an inch. But it was still closer, and she'd done it intentionally. "Sometimes, you'll do anything to get your courage back…"

"You lean on people in ways you haven't before…" I agreed.

She tilted her head very slightly. Our hands brushed against each other, but instead off pulling away, they intertwined. And then, we were kissing. A part of me felt so ashamed. I had a girlfriend, Alex and I had always been just friends, it was so wrong. But…cheesy and over used though it may be…it felt so right. Sparks literally flew.

_**Well…it was shorter than chapters of late. But IT HAPPENED! I'm as excited as you are. I didn't PLAN for that to happen this chapter but once I start typing, the keyboard gets a mind of its own. And BOOM ultimate Jalex moment. Well, not quite ultimate (saving that one for Colors of War) but still very "aw…." Inducing.**_

_**Anyway, R &R.**_


	38. Urunos Delivers a Promise

_**I missed an update yesterday…wow. I'm actually kinda embarrassed about that….oops. Anyway, here's today's chapter. **_

_**Oh wait! Almost forgot. I know, I know. It's really spelled Uranus like the planet, but some people tend to say the name of that planet…wrong (Oh you ALL know what I'm talking about that.). SO I changed the spelling. Go figure.**_

Jacob's POV

At the same time, we both pulled away, trying to figure out what had just happened. Alex was blushing like mad when she looked away. Our hands pulled apart, but just before they did I got one last low voltage jolt that made my arm go a little numb.

We just sat there in silence for a little bit, not looking at each other. We probably would've been there all day if Alex hadn't finally spoken up.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I..I didn't mean…"

We were both fumbling around in the dark trying to think of a non-romantic reason for why we'd just done that. Needless to say, we didn't do a good job.

"I just…I don't know what came over me," Alex tried to explain. "I didn't…we can't…"

My head was already not liking this. What was I going to tell Rae? Should I even tell her? If Alex was right and having a girlfriend was going to be a distraction, then _this _was going to be a major distraction until it got sorted out.

On one hand there was Alex. She knew me better than anyone, she always had my back and I always had hers. She kept me grounded, kept me focus, and whenever I most wanted to give up, she would always somehow keep me going. I could go to her with anything, in any state of mind, rely on her as much as she did on me.

Then there was Rae. My actual girlfriend for one. Everything was so much easier with her, and the way she looked at me always made me feel like I was strong. She drew her strength from me, I was what kept her together. And she'd helped me keep a grip on reality more than once. Oh, and there was the whole thing where she wouldn't try to kill me if she lost her temper.

"Alex," I interrupted, "don't apologize."

"No," Alex said, scooting away from me. A hurt expression came across my face. Sherealized what she'd just done and tried to explain.

"Jacob," she said, "as much as I want this…" she looked me over, drew in a shaky breath, and continued, "and believe me, I want this…I can't hog you all to myself when the whole world needs you. That and although I may not like Rae, I'm not about to steal a guy who's already got a girlfriend."

She stood up, turning to leave. "Look…this never happened. We're still just friends, end of story."

I got up after her, because there was no way in Hades I was giving up that easy. "I can't just ignore this, and I know you can't either."

She stopped and turned back to look at me. "Know me that well, huh? Jacob c'mon, I hate that Rae, but you do know if you leave her for _me_, you're going to be breaking some hearts? And I know you're too nice to do that."

I sighed. Sometimes, this girl could be very, very stubborn. And about the strangest things. Who fights to _not _get what they want?

"So what then? We can't just sweep this under the rug and pretend it didn't happen," I said. "I enjoyed it too much to do that."

She gave a half-chuckle. "For all your bad comebacks, you know what to say to a girl…"

She got serious again. "But, I'm not risking your life and the world just so I can get what I want. The world needs Jacob Jackson the savior more than I need Jacob Jackson the boyfriend."

"How about this then?" I asked, coming up with an idea. "One day, when this all over, and the world doesn't need me to be its hero, and if I am _wholesomely _unattached, we'll be together. No distractions, no selfishness, no broken hearts?"

She thought it over, then gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Deal."

"Jackson…" a pained voice suddenly groaned out.

Alex and I spun our heads to see a lone figure coming towards us. He looked vaguely mortal, but his skin was blackened as if he'd been thrown in the fire for a little bit before someone pulled him out. A few embers came off of him and his clothes every now and again.

Soon, a crowd of people came down from the mess hall, chasing after it. Han, Will, Henry, Tony, Roxanne, James, anyone who could cross the border was following this one, burnt mortal warily with weapons drawn. Even my parents were following it. And it was walking straight towards me.

"Jackson…" it groaned again.

"This thing just waltzed in to camp, moaning and groaning," Henry said as they got closer. "At first we thought it wanted your Dad, but…"

"Just let me kill the damn thing!" Roxanne yelled.

"We don't know what it wants yet," James disagreed. "We might learn something. Besides, how much harm could _one _of these things do? I hear a strong enough wind can turn them to dust."

"This guy isn't like the other possessed mortals we saw," I said, approaching it with interest as it continued to limp towards me. "The original flesh is still somewhat intact, it can talk…what did Urunos do to this guy?"

"Jackson…" the possessed mortal groaned again. Then, he stopped, and his voice changed from a dry, pained groan to the voice of Urunos himself.

"Jackson," he spoke my name like a threat. Alex tensed up instantly and had her sword out in seconds. She tried to stab the thing then and there, but I grabbed her arm. I wanted to hear this out.

"What do you want?" I challenged.

"You're Oracle, is not alone in insight to the future," Urunos's voice warned. The possessed mortal's eyes glowed with the red with power as he spoke directly at me. Everyone else was hushed into silence, hanging on his every word.

"You will fight, you will resist," Urunos warned. "But my numbers will darken the skies. You will lose hope as I take life after life, city after city. I will break your every line as well as your spirits. Look around you Jacob, look at all those you love, those who look to you for guidance. For very soon, they will all cry out for help, and you will be unable to save them all."

Alex strained against my grip, but I held her back. This was the first time anyone had talked to Urunos without someone trying to kill the other. So far, all he'd done was threaten us, threaten me. But I wanted to hear what he had to say.

"They see you as a savior," Urunos said. "I see you as but a rock, to be crushed to gravel beneath my step. When the time comes Jacob, and it shall come soon, you must choose. Who shall you sacrifice, and who shall you save? For you will try, but you will be powerless. You will be forced to listen as your friends, your family, all die. And when the last lines have fallen, you will beg for me to take you next."

Alex sent a charge up my arm, and I pulled away in pain. She shot forward and sliced. The enslaved mortal was gone in a flash. I thought that would be the end of it. It wasn't.

Alex turned to me, _her _eyes now glowing. Everyone else watching gasped. It had kind of been a secret Alex was fighting for control of herself. In Urunos's voice, not even Dark Alex, she continued.

"I know you as she knows you," Urunos warned. "I know the choices you will not make, the fears you cannot face. I know whose deaths will break your will, I know your every weakness and every strength. Your flaws, and the flaws of those you most trust will cost millions of lives. And this conflict shall not end, until you have tasted death."

Alex collapsed to the floor, and I was at her side in an instant. James was with me a second later. It all became a blur after that. She wasn't moving, her breathing was ragged, her heartbeat was off. I held her in my arms as James worked furiously to keep her stable.

The others just watched, in shock. The sense of déjà vu from when Chiron had died was coming now. Alex suddenly gasped, spasmed, and jerked to life.

"Oh gods…" she groaned. "My head is killing me…"

My relief, and the relief of everyone else watching was palpable. When Urunos showed up, I was going to make him pay for this. Somehow, some way, he was going to regret coming at me like this.

But his words echoed in my head. All his predications, they were a lot more straight forward than anything the Oracle had ever given us. I hoped he was just making grim promises rather than actually telling a future set in stone.

I looked around at everyone. I imagined hearing their last cries of life as Urunos killed them, and shuddered. Urunos, for whatever reason, was waging his own personal war against me. I had the attentions of a power far my greater. Joy.


	39. The Battle Draws Near

Dionysus tumbled backward and threw up a thick tangle of vines in an attempt to shield himself. A moment later, the vines were destroyed in a ball of fire. Urunos advanced, still clutching a limp Apollo's throat.

Dionysus struggled to get up, but wave of force from Urunos sent him flying backward. Urunos tossed Apollo aside like a rag doll and turned to more of the gods who were fruitlessly trying to stop him. The Army of Urunos was purposely going _around _New York, headed first for Camp Half Blood. They were dangerously close.

By now, the occupants of the camp would be able to see the approaching storm. This was one spot of bad weather that would not pass over them. The gods had come back to a weary Zeus's aid, but even their combined strength could only slow Urunos's progress.

Zeus shot forward again, his armor battered and ichor seeping out of several wounds. He wielded the crackling and sparking master bolt as if it were a sword, but Urunos was able to block with his own Primordial Lead sword.

Zeus was about to take another swing, but Urunos slashed into both his knees and kicked him back. The former God of the Heavens would have continued his assault, but someone behind him cleared their throat, drawing his attention.

Urunos spun to see Ares, holding a massive minigun at least twice the size of his own body. The War God had a wicked grin on his face as he swung it around to aim.

"Hi," Ares greeted. "Remember me?"

Then Celestial bronze bullets spewed out so fast it was impossible to hear the sounds of separate gunshots. It was one, long, continuous noise. They hammered into Urunos, tearing holes in his skin and sending gold dust into the air.

Athena forced herself to stand up when she saw this. She watched careful as for every few bullets that hit Urunos, one was stopped midair. As Ares's onslaught continued, more and more bullets were frozen midair. Athena realized too late what was about to happen and scooped up her broken spear. With the spur of the moment accuracy only a goddess could possess, the upper half of the broken spear flew forward and jammed itself into Ares's gun, stopping the hail of godly gunfire.

"What was that for?" Ares yelled as he tried to yank the spear out.

"Get down!" Athena shouted.

Urunos had caught several bullets, suspending them in midair with his power. And now, he was about to send them flying back at Ares. Just as the War God yanked the spear out of his gun, he saw the cloud of bullets about to come flying at him.

"…Aw Styx," he groaned.

Bullets flew forward, but before they could hit Ares, they mysteriously slowed to a crawl through the air. Ares looked at the bullets in fascination, wondering what was going on. Athena saw it, and knew reinforcements had arrived. Granted not the reinforcements she would like, but help was help.

Kronos stepped forward, shoving Ares out of the way before releasing his hold on the bullets. They went flying at full speed once again, continuing on their path. Ares grumbled something as he stood back up and dusted himself off. The other gods and goddesses watched in a mixture of horror and awe as Kronos fearlessly approached Urunos.

"Hello Father," Kronos greeted as he readied his scythe. "This time, I'll make sure you don't come back."

Zeus gritted his teeth and jerked his head in the direction of Athena and Hera. "What…is _he _doing here?"

"I told them it was a bad idea," Poseidon spoke up. "But Athena doesn't listen to me. Ever."

"Complain later Zeus," Kronos put in. "For now, just watch and learn."

Kronos swung his scythe, but Urunos blocked. Kronos flashed back to the last time he'd raised his weapon against Urunos. It had been…easier last time to say the least. But with no element of surprise, Kronos was realizing just how powerful his father truly was, and that this was going to be a much tougher fight.

The two power houses briefly dueled until Kronos was forced back and Urunos tried to let loose with a fireball. It slowed to a crawl mid-flight, and Kronos batted it out of the air. Urunos lunged forward at blinding speed, and the Lord of Time himself was barely fast enough to block.

Kronos shot a look at the gods who had just been watching the entire time. "Don't just stand there like a bunch of open mouth morons! Help me!"

"Do we have to?" Hermes whined. "I kinda wanna just let them tire each other and finish off whoever survives."

"Back him up!" Athena ordered.

"Aw come on!" Hermes complained, even as they surged forward to back up the very same person who'd once tried to destroy them.

As Zeus and Kronos both flew back from one of Urunos's attacks, Zeus warned his father, "I don't know what brought you back or what they promised you, but as soon as this is over I will destroy you."

"Likewise," Kronos acknowledged as they both stood up.

"We could use a hand here!" Hera shouted over the sounds of battle.

"This isn't over," Zeus warned as the father and son rushed back in to join the fight. Explosion, clanking metal, and gods yelling at each other because "You're fighting all wrong!" "Stop judging and start helping!" "Wait, where'd my sword go?" "You don't use a sword!"

Athena and Poseidon can argue anytime, anywhere, over anything it would seem. Much to the annoyance of everyone else. The fight raged on, but nothing could slow Urunos, even the power of Kronos.

Despite the best efforts of all of them, Urunos pushed on until Long Island was in sight. Camp Half-Blood was Urunos's for the taking.

Jacob's POV

Everyone was mobilizing already. This was it. This was our moment. We would live or die based on whether or not we were strong enough today. Alex, Henry, Han, and all the others were standing gathered around me. Even Rae was there, holding a bow with a quiver of arrows strapped to her back. I made a note to ask her what she thought she was doing later.

We all had small radio headsets on, to keep in touch in the middle of the chaos of the fight and to communicate with our troops. Mine was fitting me kind of funny, but it was nothing serious.

_What are you waiting for kid? _Miz asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him.

_It's called a final speech. Good at making them?_

"Not at all," I admitted. "But…here goes…"

By now, all the others were looking at me like I was nuts. But hey, sometimes a guy just has to talk to his sword.

"Look," I began, taking a deep breath. "I know it's been rough. We've lost a lot of good people, and we might lose more."

Everyone muttered, mumbled, or got downcast at that. Who could blame them? It wasn't usually a boost to morale to think about your friends dying. Not usually. There was one of Roxanne's siblings who…never mind.

"But Urunos attacked us on our own home turf. He thinks he nothing can stop him. He's enslaved friends, family, and countless innocent people. He's coming to finish what he started, to kill every last one of us."

"But this isn't just a fight for survival," I warned them. "This isn't a fight for our lives. Because if we can't save ourselves, we sure as Hades can't save the world. We're fighting for the world today. That's the scale, that's what this is about."

There were nods of approval now. Roxanne spun on of her swords in anticipation, Henry drew his trident, and even Alex smiled in approval.

"When you're out there fighting today, when you lead the troops into battle, remember you're fighting for every man woman and child. Make them proud. Make me proud. Make yourselves proud."

"Let's kick Urunos's immortal ass!" Roxanne shouted, sending everyone in a roar of excitement. Even I joined in at some point.

Once everyone was calmed down, I gave everyone their assignments. Everyone had their own unit and their own part of Long Island to defend. Although Alex wasn't very happy about hers.

"You've got me defending the Hill?" Alex asked. "Really? Jacob you know I belong with the Frontline troops."

"Your control slips the more enslaved people your around," I reminded her. "Stay here, away from the main mass of the Army. If they get past all of us, you're the last line of defense."

"So Rae gets to go out but I don't?" Alex asked, pointing to her. I spun to see Rae sliding a few extra arrows into her quiver.

"Oh gods, let me handle this," I said, walking over. I walked over, trying to sound annoyed. I could've sworn I'd told Rae a long time ago she would not be fighting, she was to stay at camp where it was safest.

It made sense, at least to me, to put all off the most important things to me in one place. Alex would be guarding Half-Blood Hill with her unit, Rae was in Camp Half-Blood itself with Han and his unit watching out for her. Rae, Alex, and camp were all the ultimate things I was trying to protect. And they were surrounded by line after line of our defenses. Made up mostly of mortal forces, each unit was being led by a demigod.

There were two frontline units. The 1st Frontline was going to be led by me, and the 2nd Frontline was being commanded by Roxanne, quite possibly the person most excited for this battle. Henry was in charge of the Northern 3rd division , Tony the Southern 4th. Rick had the Eastern 5th and Will the Western 6th. The 1st Marksman division was being led by James, they would be picking off enemies from a distance.

The 8th and 9th heavy defense divisions were being led by Roxanne's two surviving siblings, Han had the 10th Camp Guardians, Alex was leading the 11th Hilltop divisions, Mariah was with the 2nd Marksman division, and Alia was spearheading arguably the weakest unit, the 12th Support.

Even the older demigods were with us. My parents, Alex's parents, Travis the Son of Hermes all had their own units under their command.

All those forces protecting camp and the two people who meant the most to me meant that if Urunos wanted to destroy what I most cared about, he'd have to get through an army (and me) to do it.

So why was Rae gearing up for a fight? "What do you think you're doing?"

Rae jumped slightly, she hadn't seen me coming. "Oh, just doing some last minute battle prep."

"You're not going out to fight, I already told you," I insisted.

"Oh I know, but if somehow Urunos shows up with an army I at least want to defend myself," Rae explained. "Maybe for once instead of screaming and hyper-ventilating, I can fight back."

I groaned. "Can you even use that bow."

"Better than I can a sword," Rae said. "James says I have potential."

"Sir, the 1st Frontline is waiting for you," a voice called over the radio. I sighed.

"I'm coming. I'm coming. Sorry Rae, gotta go."

She nodded, then quickly grabbed me by the collar of the armor and pulled me in. We kissed, knowing very well this could be it.

"Be safe," she said.

"Be strong," was my response.

_Be less indecisive. Or have you at least worked out a schedule to give both girls equal amount of time?_

"Shut it Miz," I mumbled.

_Just saying, if you're not going to pick either one you should at least keep it fair._

"I swear, one of these days you're going to shut up and I'm going to laugh," I said. "I am going to laugh and no one will ever have to wonder why I'm chatting with my weapon."

_You know you'd miss me Smart One._


	40. His Numbers Darken the Skies

Jacob's POV

I was riding out to our position with my troops, as was everyone else who'd been given command of a unit. As I rode out, I must've called for status reports about fifty times. The storm that surrounded the fight between Urunos and the gods was already covering all of Long Island. Every now and again lightning would flash somewhere in the sky, and I knew we were finally here.

_Hey kid, I've developed a strategy to win this, wanna hear it? _Miz asked.

I raised an eyebrow. Usually Miz just offered insults and misplaced life coaching. I had to hear this. "Alright, what have you got?"

_Don't screw up like you normally do! HA! Classic…_

"Shut it Miz…"

I pulled up to the 1st Frontline waiting for me. Aside from infantry, we had two helicopters, five Humvees with machine guns mounted on them, and even a tank. We were, along with the 2nd Frontline, the vanguard of Camp Half-Blood's defense. We'd be the first to get hit, and no matter how many times I tried not to think about it…the first to die.

It started with one small glowing red orb in the clouds. Then there were two. Then there were ten. Then twenty. More and more were appearing overhead. There were mutters of anxiety and the sound of weapon safeties clicking off. I raised Miz, _hoping _ I was ready for this.

"Find cover!" I ordered. "You're a sitting duck in the open."

They responded, moving to crouch and duck behind cars, mailboxes, and anything else that offered protection.

"Don't waste too much ammo on any one enemy. If they're not going down, they're deflecting your bullets and you're just wasting your time. And whatever you do, don't let them grab your shoulders!"

There were nods of understanding. I wasn't exactly an expert on fighting these things, I'd only had one battle full of experience. But I had more experience than my troops, who'd never fought these sad embers of their former selves. Embers. Kind of a fitting name really. Catchier than enslaved mortals anyway.

The first one became visible as it drifted down below the cloud line. Then its buddies started to descend. There were a lot more than I anticipated.

"Status report," I said one last time into my headset.

"This is gonna be _fun_," was Roxanne's response.

"Oh…wow. That's a lot bad guys. Hey, when they're up in the clouds it kind of looks like— argh, sorry. Distracted again. That should stop once the adrenaline kicks in," Henry reported.

"Looking like a lot of hostiles headed our way," Will said. "But I think we can take 'em."

"Still all clear out here," Alex reported. "And I'm still mad at you."

"Nothing out here," came one of Roxanne's brothers. "There'd better be some action here soon or I'm coming after you Jackson."

"We've got clear shots at a lot of these things," James said. "Can we take them out?"

"We have targets sighted here too," Mariah confirmed.

"Drop them," I ordered the leaders of the two marksman divisions.

The first Ember came within firing range, and all weapons trained on it. I held up a hand. _Not yet._ More came within range, some of them with fireballs ready. _Wait for it…_ With my free hand, readjusted my grip on Miz to prepare for a throw.

"Now!" I shouted at the same time I threw my sword.

Miz flew through the air, shooting out jets of water and tearing into enemy ranks. Bullets went flying and several Embers turned into puffs of smoke and ash.

But these things fought back. They hit the ground with impossible force, sending out shockwaves that knocked people back and overturned cars. Fire rained down on us, setting cover ablaze and scorching clothing.

One hit me dead in the chest and I fell to the floor, lucky to be nothing more than a little singed. The fighting got very fierce, very fast. One helicopter was flying erratically, spinning and trying to shake off the five Embers clinging to it and bashing repeatedly on it with everything they had. One of them finally got smart and tore apart the tail rotor with a combination of brute strength and telekinetic power.

The helicopter spun wildly out of control, still firing. Several Embers got hit and vanished, but so did several good fighting men and women. The helicopter crashed to the ground and exploded, taking two enemies and eight friendlies with it.

Soldier were dropping like flies, burned alive, broken bones, or their bodies torn apart by their own redirected bullets. Fighting these things was like fighting a really big swarm of hornets with a flamethrower. It was really easy to take them down, but there were too many and sooner or later you got overwhelmed.

I rolled to avoid another blast of fire and sliced another enemy into nonexistence as I got up. Bullets whizzed within inches of my head, taking out an Ember that had gotten behind me. I waded through the horde, slashing and dodging to the best of my ability.

But one by one, the soldiers fell and the horde just kept coming. One particularly devastating moment was when our tank was thrown like it was a rock by one berserk enemy's telekinetic power. It went flying over our heads before crashing into our other helicopter. Together, the two flaming wrecks fell to earth and crushed even more of our people.

It ended up with me and about four others backed up against a wall, fighting with everything we had. The soldiers with me had already run out of ammo, they were using knives and fists or even just swinging their empty rifles like a club.

"We're screwed!" one soldier yelled.

I pointed Miz and shot out a powerful jet of water that cut into enemy ranks like butter, giving us some breathing room. I kept the pressure on, sweeping it in a wide arc to take out as many as possible until finally Miz's reserves ran dry.

_Well, it slowed them down._ Miz remarked as more enemies began to rain down from the sky.

"You've gotta be kidding me…" I groaned. "Retreat! Fall back!"

The five of us ran from the oncoming horde of enemies. One soldier went down as a fireball hit him, and a second was tackled to the ground by a small mob. I skidded to a stop and turned to the mass of enemies chasing us down.

"Keep moving," I ordered the remaining troops. "Fall back to the next line. I'll hold them off."

"Alone?"

"Not exactly," I said. I felt the burning sensation in my shoulder. Sure enough, the tattoos across my arm were glowing blue again. Blessed with power beyond that of any before or any to come. Time to see just how powerful that was.

"Come and get some!" I challenged.

Embers launched themselves at me, but I was a blur. IT was like anything that got too close to me died. Until one dodged under my swipe and gave a yell. With that yell came a wave of force that sent me fly backward, skidding across the pavement.

The Embers moved in for the kill, letting out a strange, twisted version of what I thought was a laugh. I groaned, staggering back to my feet. I was completely surrounded, but the glow of the tattoos only go brighter.

"Alright," I said. "Try this."

I stabbed my sword into the ground, and the whole earth shook. Several enemies fell to the floor, some hard enough to disperse their fragile bodies. But I wasn't done yet. The water mains and sewer lines all around ruptured beneath the streets, and geysers of water shot up from cracks, clearing the mob that surrounded me.

One more lunged at me from behind. I stabbed backward without even looking, killing it. The glow faded, and I was breathing hard. But…no more enemies came down to challenge me. I was alone, with nothing but the sound of storm and battle far off.

"This is Roxanne of the 2nd Frontline," a voice said in my radio headset. "I can do this all day but I'm running out of men. We need reinforcements or we're going to have to retreat. Send help immediately."

I spoke into my headset. "Hang on Roxanne, I'm on my—"

"Taking heavy loses out here!" Tony's voice interrupted. "If we don't get help soon they're going to punch through!"

Before I could even talk to Tony about that, _another _person interrupted.

"There were too many, we're falling back. Western lines are broken," Will reported, his voice shouting over the sound of gunfire. "Repeat, the Western lines are _broken_. We've got wounded and we need help to fall back to base, they've got our escape route blocked."

"Keep your heads down!" Henry's voice shouted. "Son of a— We're getting torn to pieces out here! How many people did Urunos freakin recruit? Styx!"

"This is James, our position is compromised! We're on the run but they're following us. We need assistance."

"This is Rick. Either send reinforcements, or a lot of shovels and crosses."

"We're in full retreat, there's too many!"

"Lines have been broken, the west is wide open. We need to fall back or— ugh!"

I stood there in shock, listening as everyone reported the same thing. Too many. Lines broken .Need help. I had to try and save them, some of them. But which first?

"He's here!" Han's voice suddenly yelled. "Everyone, Urunos is _here_! We need help, Camp is under—"

I didn't hear the rest of what Han had to say, I didn't have to. I spoke into the headset. "All divisions, fall back immediately! The camp is underseige, repeat, the camp is under siege!"

I ran full sprint to one abandoned Humvee. It roared to life and I slammed on the gas, backing up into a streetlight. I cursed the gear shifter, put the thing in drive, and sped off for camp As I drove I used my radio again.

"11th Hilltop, talk to me, what's your status?" I asked.

There was no response. Alex was in charge of the 11th. They were supposed to be defending Half-Blood Hill. Why weren't they answering? I willed the car to go even faster. Urunos was at camp. Somehow, in the chaos he'd slipped right past us, straight to camp. To Rae, to Alex, to my home. My stomach turned to knots. Would I get there in time?

"Sir, this is Private Ryan of the 11th Hilltop. We got overwhelmed and we had to fall back," a soldier said over the radio.

"Where's your commander?" I asked. Why wasn't Alex the one talking to me right now. What was going on.

"She started glowing, ditched her headset and flew off sir. Haven't seen her since."

I was stunned into silence.

"…Hello? Sir?"

"Gods no…" I whispered.


	41. Evan is a Menace

_**I keep missing updates. But in my defense this story is EXHAUSTING! Oh god, thank goodness Demigod Files 2.0 won't be this hard to write…I hope. Okay You guys read this, I going to go ahead and pass out on my .oldskjbn**_

I was driving as fast as I could without crash…okay as fast as I could without fatally crashing. Smaller obstacles met my bumper before being bashed aside, and don't even get me started on some of the other cars parked here and there. As I got closer, I could see huge explosions rise into the air and hear gunshots crack again and again.

I was making pretty good time back to camp. The others…not so much.

"We're cut off! Gonna take a while to get back!" Will said.

"Pinned down out here, you guys are on your own for this one!" Henry yelled. An explosion followed his words. "Argh! Gods damn it!"

I gritted my teeth as the reports came in. Roxanne and her unit were still moving back to camp at a relatively good pace, but they were a ways out and still being chased down by a horde of Embers. For the time being, I was the only reinforcements camp would be getting.

That was when something landed on the hood of the Humvee I was driving, and I was sent flying out of the windshield and rolling across the pavement.

_Didn't your mother ever tell you to always wear your seat belt?_ Miz asked.

I picked up my weapon , rubbing my head with my free hand. "I swear when this is over I'm melting you down into a toilet seat."

"Good to see you again Jacob," a voice echoed.

I looked up, and my mouth dropped in horror. There, standing in front of me, was someone I hadn't seen in a long time. Former leader of the Pit, now as big a slave as anyone else, Evan Nakamura, in all his red glowing, one metal handedness.

"Evan…" I said, slowly backing away.

_Has he been working out? He's got this healthy glow I don't remember last time. _

"Hilarious," I muttered. "What do you want Urunos?"

"Not Urunos," Evan said. "I wanted to do this personally."

"Think what you want Evan, it's still Urunos in control," I said as I took a defensive stance. "Or has he got you convinced on some illusion that your still in control and he's just lending you his powers?"

"Save your breath Jacob," Evan said. Fire danced across his good hand, and the metallic fingers of his other transformed to talons. "At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who's in control. You still owe me a hand."

"That's going to have to wait, I'm kind of in a hurry," I said.

My body shook and I collapsed into a puddle of water. Even Miz turned into water. I flowed across the streets trying to escape, but suddenly I couldn't' move. By force, my body was pressed back together into solid form.

I tried to turn back into water, but something was holding me together, like invisible duct tape.

"Any other ways you want to try and run?" Evan asked, laughing. Of course.

"You don't want to do this Evan," I warned. I tried to reach for my sword on the ground, but my arm didn't respond. It was pinned to my side. I tried to take a step. Nothing. Evan had me completely immobile.

"Please, you could never beat me before Jacob, and that was before the power of Urunos," Evan reminded me.

"Oh yeah?" I asked defiantly. "How's that hand feeling?"

Suddenly, the force keeping me still tightened its grip, and I felt my ribs compress. I tried—and failed—to hold back the groan of pain. Evan grinned.

"Any last words Jacob?" Evan asked me confidently. "Something to say to Alex maybe? I could pass on the message."

I looked to Miz, searching for hope, but I'd used up all the water in his crystals during our last fight. How to get out of this? I could…

Evan flicked his wrist, and I went flying backward into a car, still immobile. My brains felt rattled. For once, I was out of ideas. My radio headset, stupidly, was still on. I wished it wasn't. Voices

"Too many…" a weary voice said. "Gave 'em hell but…my spear…"

"Get that man a medic! Watch your back their coming up behind us! Look ou—"

"If anyone can still hear us, we're going to block the main road to camp. This is gonna be big…always wanted to go out with a bang…"

A moment later, I heard an explosion not far off. Evan looked in its direction, at least partially distracted. He shook his head with disapproval. "You and your friends certainly know how to fight to the bitter end…"

His control slipped just a little bit. It shouldn't have mattered, but for some reason the fact that I had a little wiggle room gave me hope. A lot of hope. My tattoos glowed to life bright blue, and the blue glow even spread to the rest of my body. I felt the power of the sea, and suddenly two geysers of water shot out of my hands.

They hit Evan with enough force to knock him onto his back, and his hold broke completely. I waved my hand, and shockwaves shot forward through the earth toward Evan. He flew into the air to avoid them, but the look on his face was clearly shocked.

"Impossible!" he yelled, although he was starting to sound more like Urunos.

"Beg to differ," I said.

Fire shot forward from his hands. I raised my arms to shield myself and water actually flowed form my hands, forming a barrier. When the flames hit, there was nothing but steam.

"How are you doing this?" Evan demanded. He surged forward, and a Primordial Lead sword flashed into his hands.

I reached out toward Miz, and he flew into my waiting palm.

"Miz, any idea what's going on?" I asked.

_What part of blessing of Poseidon did you not understand? _Miz asked. _But uh…you may want to wrap this up quick._

"Why?" I asked as I blocked Evan's sword.

The glow from my tattoos flickered, and suddenly died out completely. I suddenly felt very dried out. Evan parried my next strike and kicked me across the street and onto the ground. Before I could get up, a fireball hit me in the face.

Evan grinned and hit me with another column of flame. So far, nothing had actually caught fire.

"What just happened?" I asked as I raised my sword to block the next shot of flaming death.

_Do I look like I have all the answers? Ask Poseidon next time you see him. _

"I hate you," I stated flatly.

"I know," Miz and Evan said at the same time.

That was when Evan went flying backward like a ragdoll. He hit the ground hard, and a single black and red lightning bolt hit him dead in the chest. He just growled in anger and pushed himself back onto his feet.

I turned in the direction the bolt had come from. Floating down towards the Earth was Alex, eyes glowing red along with the rest of her. Thunder rumbled as she touched down.

"You have all the power in the world Alex, but still you fight for the weak?" Evan asked.

"Somebody has to," she replied. She drew her Stygian Iron sword.

_Oh…this should be fun to watch._

"And you still insist on using such an inferior metal," Evan said disapprovingly. He held up his own sword, made of a dull gray Primordial Lead. "Join the winning side Alex. It could be so much more fun."

Alex looked from him to me and back again. Dark Alex or regular, apparently they both say no the same way: with a lightning bolt to the face.

Evan staggered back, and Alex rushed forward with her sword. I ran after the dueling pair. Like I was going to miss out on this. Just as Evan and Alex's blades locked, I got close enough to take a stab at Evan. He broke away from Alex and parried my attack aside, but he still took a few steps back.

"Don't think that just because there's two of you that I'm at a disadvantage," Evan warned.

"You were at a disadvantage when it was just me," Alex reminded him. She shoved me aside and charged Evan again. I watched as she hammered his guard with sword strikes, searching for an opening. Evan tried to use a blast of fire to disorient her, but a gust of wind dissipated it mid air.

I ran after them again, but just before I came in range Alex waved her hand dismissively and I was shoved by an invisible hand onto my butt.

"Stay out of this Jacob!" Alex ordered, her fiery red aura getting brighter as Evan's grew dimmer.

_Is there ever a day when she _doesn't _show you up?_ Miz asked.

"Shut it," I ordered.

_Touchy._

Alex and Evan continued to fight one on one, with Alex clearly winning. Evan tried to keep up, but Alex was just too powerful. Suddenly, they both froze. Completely just stopped moving, although they were both struggling against some unseen force. It took me a second to figure it out.

They were holding each other in place. Neither one could make a move. This was my chance.

I ran forward, bearing down on Evan. I began the backswing to gut him, but suddenly he let out an angry roar and both Alex and I flew backward.

"Fool! I'll finish them myself!" Evan said. His eyes clenched shut as he added, "No! I can do this! You had your chance!"

His voice kept changing from his own to Urunos's and back again, until finally he shut up and grinned at Alex and me.

"We'll continue this very soon Jackson," Urunos told me. "Until then, enjoy your friends company."

He shot up into the sky, leaving me confused. Before I could even say "what just happened?" though, I was shoved to the ground _again_. I turned and saw Alex glaring at me, sword pointed at my throat.

Aw crud.


	42. If You Love Someone, Let Them Go

"She could only resist for so long," Alex said. It was Urunos's voice coming from her. My jaw slackened and I stared up at her, but it wasn't Alex staring back. For all of Alex's strength, for all of Dark Alex's will, Urunos had taken control.

I looked down at the sword pointed at my throat and smacked it aside with my own before rolling away and running for my life and hers.

"Where do you think you're going?" Urunos laughed. I felt my feet lose contact with the ground and I was lifted into the air, helpless.

"Alex, don't let him win," I pleaded. "C'mon fight it!"

Alex flicked her wrist, and I went flying into a car, denting its door and trapping me. As I struggled to pull myself free, flames danced across Alex's hand.

"You're stronger than this Alex, I know it!" I begged. The flames hurt more than anything I'd taken all day. Probably because Alex was the one firing them.

"Alex di Angelo is gone, you fool," Urunos said. "Anything left of her belongs to me now."

I finally pulled myself free of the car. A fireball flew my way, but I managed to raise Miz in time to block. Alex just grinned and pointed her sword at me. I went flying backward again, skidding across the pavement.

"You're wrong Urunos," I insisted. "I made a promise to a friend not long ago. This is your one chance. Just let her go."

"Or what?"

"She lives free, or she doesn't live," I said. "I'm not going to let you keep her."

"Is that so?" Urunos asked.

I held Miz at ready. "Alex, if you can still hear me, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"You will be," Urunos threatened. "You will be."

I charged forward, and so did Alex. Celestial bronze and Stygian Iron clashed only a few times before I blocked a strike that left Alex wide open. I should have stabbed and ended it right there but…I don't know. I hesitated. And I got kicked to the ground for it.

Alex stabbed down, but her sword only sank into concrete. I kicked her back to get some breathing room as I jumped back up. I blocked her next assault one strike after the other, but I couldn't take the offensive. In part because she was too fast, and in part because it was hard wrapping my mind around the idea of killing Alex.

Our blades locked and we pushed against each other, fighting for dominance. Our faces were close, her glare meeting my remorseful frown.

"Alex, I don't want to do this, you have to come back," I said. She just shoved me back and took a swing at my head.

I blocked, dodged, and then counter-thrusted to force her back, but she persisted nonetheless. Somewhere in there was Alex, still fighting Urunos's control. She had to be. There had to be an alternative to death.

I reluctantly went on the offensive after passing up several opportunities to. She worked to keep back my attacks, but it was obvious I wasn't putting everything I had into it.

_I know it's horrible, and I don't like it, but maybe you should consider—_

"SHUT IT MIZ!" I ordered, sweat running down my forehead by now.

_Sooner or later someone in this fight has to die. I'd prefer it not be us._ Miz reasoned.

"Is that all?" Urunos challenged. "At this rate, both of you will belong to me."

I blocked her next swing and grabbed her wrist. She just laughed and pushed me. Hard. I flew back again, striking the base of a hill. I struggled to get up, but when I did all I had to do was look up to see a large pine tree at the top of the hill, with the Golden Fleece hanging around it.

Camp Half-Blood.

Gunshots cracked from the other side of the hill, accompanied by explosions and shouts and weapons clashing.

The Golden Fleece still glistened despite it all. I remembered the story my parents had told me about all the trouble they'd had to go through to get it. How my mom had almost died. A light bulb went off in my head.

I beckoned Alex forward, goading her to attack again. She charged forward and I sidestepped her initial strike. The duel resumed again as we fought up the hill. Behind me I could hear the sounds of a much larger battle, likely involving Urunos himself. But for now I could care less.

We reached the top of the hill, still fighting. The only way of escape form the curse of Urunos was death. And Alex was nobody's slave. I knew what I had to do.

But when our sword locked again and I stared at Alex's face, no matter how contorted in anger that wasn't hers, I froze up at the thought of actually killing her. She took advantage of that.

I cried out in as a line of blood appeared across my left arm and my sword fell out of my hands. She shoved me down the hill, where I finally rolled to a stop. When I got up her sword was pointed at my neck. I desperately dove after Miz, who was laying a few feet uphill. That turned out to be a big mistake.

Alex stabbed down, ramming her sword through my left hand and pinning it into the ground palm up, just short of my sword. I yelled in pain again, and my vision went red. Alex leaned in and punched me across the face.

She did it again, with fire flickering across her knuckles this time. Then again, harder. I could taster blood now. I looked to where Miz had fallen, but he was gone. Which meant he should be back in my pocket, in pen form.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to Alex one last time. She punched me again, and I reached into my pocket and dug out a silver click pen with a blue grip. I stabbed it forward, clicking it against her stomach.

Miz elongated into a full sword, running through Alex in the process. She gasped, and the red glow faded from her body. Her eyes turned back to the color they were supposed to be. She fell away from me, my sword still stuck in her stomach and her sword still pinning my hand to the ground.

With a very high degree of pain, I managed to pull it out. I set it aside and stagger over to her. She was shivering, and blood was quickly staining her clothes.

_The only escape is death…_ The warning echoed in my head.

"Not today," I said.

I pulled the sword out of her stomach, her gasping again as I did. It had a lot of blood on it. I shook my head, collapsed it into a pen and shoved it into my pocket again for now. Then, I scooped Alex up in my arms and carried her up the hill. I cast a quick glance at Camp Half Blood. Embers were raining down, and a select few were fighting them off. Fighting one on one seemed to be Kronos and Urunos, but Urunos had the upper hand.

I shook my head and continued until we reached the top. Alex was clinging to me for whatever dear life she had left, which couldn't be much. My heart broke as I forcefully pried her off of me and set her down. Lifting the Golden Fleece off the branches of the pine tree, I draped it over her. She clung to it, quickly wrapping it around her.

I took out Miz again and held the hilt out to her. "Alex, I need you to hold this."

"J-Ja…" she tried to say.

"Just do it," I ordered, pressing the hilt into her palm.

She nodded, taking hold of Miz.

"Do you have her?" I asked him.

_Long as she doesn't let go, I can sense everything about her…I'm guessing I have to keep an eye on her?_

"That'd be nice," I said, standing up. "Miz, I mean it. Call me the second anything goes wrong."

_Where are you going?_ He asked.

"I'm going to end this," I said.

I turned to leave, but stopped myself. I turned back to Alex, knelt down, and gave her one last, slow kiss on the forehead. I looked her dead in the eye and promised her, "I'll be back."

She nodded slowly.

"Don't let go of that sword," I instructed, leaving again. I trotted down the hill, scooping up Alex's sword on the way. My tattoos shimmered back to life, slowly brightening into their full glow. It was time to make a god bleed.

_**So yes, Alex lost the battle for herself, and then Jacob saved her by mortally wounding her and now she may or may not pull through. Jacob is going to go full prophecy child-badass soon, so yay.**_

_**Will Alex survive, or will she simply die free? Will Jacob be able to save his home and defeat Urunos? Who was the aforementioned (in the preview of this story) hero who saved the day? Tune in next time to find out.**_


	43. Despite His Best Efforts

Jacob's POV

An Ember threw itself at me, only to get sliced out of the air. I could see Urunos, not too far away. He shoved Kronos back, and a horde of Embers soon attacked the Lord of Time. They wouldn't put him down, but they would _slow _him down, and keep him out of my way for at least while.

Or I thought that until the charred bodies went flying and Kronos charged forward again. Terrific. I toward the two, sword in hand.

_Miz, I need an update_. I thought.

_She's…alive, if you can call it that. _Miz said.

_A little more specific please? _I asked as more Embers charged. A few seconds of hacking and slashing later, they were gone.

_Who do I look like, Apollo? _Miz asked. _Ugh. Definitely not stable, her breathing doesn't sound right, but the Fleece is keeping her alive…for now anyway._

The "for now" comment scared me enough to make me stumble, and I was tackled to the ground by more Embers. They hammered me with fiery fists, and one sank its teeth into my leg. I cried out in pain and water shot out of the ground, getting them off of me and turning them to ashes.

_What does "for now" mean?_

_It means she should be dead right now, and you should be feeling lucky she's still breathing. _Miz snapped. _Look if she gets seriously worse, I'll let you know. For now, stop chatting and FOCUS!_

I could hear him yell the last word in my head and cringed, but he was right. Worrying would get me nowhere, except maybe dead. I looked around, but when I looked to where Urunos had been, I only saw a body flying at me.

Kronos and I tumbled across the ground in a heap of arms and legs, and at some point I lost my grip on Alex's sword. When we finally, ground to a stop, Kronos was cursing in some language even I didn't know. As my vision clear, I realized Alex's Stygian Iron sword was embedded in his leg.

I grabbed it and wrenched it free, but rather than a traditional "thank you" he roared in pain and sent out a wave of force that sent me flying back. Again.

"Argh! Curse you…" he groaned.

"Curse me later, I've got a busy schedule," I said rapidly, getting up and taking off again after Urunos, who was slowly rising into the sky now.

Fire ignited across his fingers, and he threw out a quick blast. It shattered the Artemis cabin, turning it to splinters. He fired off a second, ruining another cabin. I stabbed Alex's sword into the ground, and I shot up, propelled by a geyser of water.

Urunos saw me coming, and waved his hand. The water sending me flying up dissipated, and I plummeted back down to the ground, landing hard. Urunos flew back down, looking down on me through his stringy gray hair. He shook his head disapprovingly, and I heard his voice inside my head.

_Still you persist. Give in Jackson, and embrace your end._

"Embrace this!" I yelled, and stabbed forward.

His sword shot to life—literally it came to _life_. The blade melted down into a putty like state and shot out like tendrils They wrapped around my wrists and yanked, forcibly crossing my arms and causing me to nearly cut myself with the Stygian Iron sword I was holding.

Urunos yanked, and I was pulled towards him. In his free hand a knife appeared, ready to stab. I twisted, dodging midair and causing him to cut the bonds he'd put me in. I landed behind him with sword ready. His knife extended and reshaped into a sword as well.

We charged towards each other and our blades crashed. They only clashed two more times before he shoved me back and stabbed the ground. Columns of Primordial Lead shot up from the ground, and I had to dodge and weave to avoid being hit by them.

_You can't hope to win. Even now, I'm merely toying with you._

"Oh?" I asked.

The glow of my tattoos brightened even more, accompanied by an oddly satisfying burning sensation that sent pain lacing across my arm and shoulder. I let out a battle cry and slammed my fist into the ground, making the earth shake. Chunks of dirt shot up out of the ground, shook free by the miniature earthquake I'd made. They all flew Urunos's way, though none of them actually hit him.

He responded with his own show of power. He slashed out, sending a wave of fire flying toward me. I bent backwards, and it narrowly passed over me.

_Fight all you want Jackson. Not even your power is enough to defeat me._

"Let's test that theory shall we?" I challenged.

I leapt forward, coming as close as I could to him. Up close, he was much scarier than he was farther away. His skin, patches of it looking flaky and about to fall off…I almost wanted to barf. Instead, I pressed my hand against his chest and shoved. _Hard_. My shoved was only backed up by a jet stream of water that shot out of my palm.

Urunos was thrown backward, landing on his back with a grunt. I gotta say, I _loved _being a human fire hydrant.

_Quick input. _Miz said into my head. _Fire hydrants eventually run out._

The glow of my tattoos flickered. Every time it did, I felt dehydrated and tired. "SHUT IT MIZ!" I yelled into the sky before the glow of my tattoos abruptly ended, making me feel drained.

Urunos stood up, looking me over. I could see his mouth behind that weird mask he wore over it, but I was pretty sure he was smiling. Then, in a flash he was gone. I felt the temperature of the air behind me shoot up. Before I could turn around, I was screaming as a Primordial Lead sword point jutted out of my left shoulder.

_A valiant effort. But all valiant eventually fall. _The blade twisted, tearing through more flesh and getting another cry of pain out of me. I a last ditch attempt to save myself, and stabbed backward with my own weapon.

Urunos's roar of pain was so loud I think my ears started bleeding. I fell to the ground, the sword removed from my shoulder. Bleeding and dazed, I looked up and watched as Urunos staggered back with Alex's sword sticking out of his stomach.

Golden dust flowed from the wound and into the sword. Because the sword was still stuck in his stomach, no threads could form to self-stitch his wound shut. Which meant the Stygian Iron blade could just keep soaking up his essence until he was gone…or until the blade exploded.

He wrenched it out of his gut, and cloud of golden dust coming out with it. He tossed it aside and looked to his stomach wound. After a moment, the threads came, stitching the wound and pulling it shut. Urunos looked on at me with fury.

_You will pay dearly for that._

An arrow appeared in the side of his head a moment after he threatened me. He staggered before yanking it out.

I rolled onto my side to look and see who'd fired the arrow. I'd expected to see James or Mariah or maybe even Alia. Instead, I saw Rae, holding a bow and looking terrified. What in Hades did she think she was doing?

_**Well…I think we can all agree Rae's as good as dead. That ends that relationship. Or does it?**_


	44. More Effective than a Hairbrush

_**Oh. Thank. God. We've finally reached the last action sequence. And we're close to the end of the whole story too! Well boys, girls, and its, it's been a great ride. Now let's get this done!**_

Rae's POV

When Jacob and the others headed out, I was nervous. As Han and I listened to the radio, nervous became anxious. And then…they showed up, and I was flat out terrified.

"Styx! Stay down!" Han shouted, shoving me to the ground. He drew his knives and his small band of fighters open fired with their weapons. At first, it looked like they'd be able to hold them back and everything would be fine. But those things…they just kept coming.

As more and more charcoal skinned monsters dropped down on us, Han and the others retreated further and further towards the woods. I sat there the whole time, being led by Han or a soldier to a safe hiding place whenever we retreated further back. I was cowering, praying I wouldn't have to use bow I clutched in my hands.

Then, the sky grew darker, the air grew colder, and through the trees I could see something in the sky glowing bright red. Thunder boomed and fire rained down. Han looked up stared at the sky in horror and ordered the remaining soldiers to push out of the woods.

"Rae, run for it!" Han yelled. "We'll hold them off!"

"What? What's going on?" I asked.

"He's here! Rae, run!" Han yelled again. This time, I didn't question him. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. I tried to run faster than that…but I fell on my face. As I dusted myself off, a lone possessed mortal jumped dropped down in front of me. I yelped and fell onto my butt, arrows falling out of my quiver.

It charged forward, and I frantically snatched up an arrow, notched it and let it fly. It only hit the shoulder, but the thing still vanished into ashes and embers. I breathed a sigh of relief and began picking up the arrows I'd dropped, but only three arrows later another possessed mortal landed.

I notched an arrow and aimed, but another showed up. And then another. Pretty soon I was surrounded by a small circle of charcoal skinned, sharp-toothed _things _that had once been human. Did I mention they could shoot fire and tear apart a pick up truck with their mind?

I could _maybe _get off one arrow before the rest swarmed me and finished me off. And that was only if I could stop shaking long enough to re-notch the arrow. As it was, I was just waiting to die.

Then, one them suddenly turned to a cloud of ash. The others looked around frantically, but one by one they were killed. I couldn't see what was killing them, couldn't hear it either. But it was taking them out fast than they could react, and they were all too distracted to kill me, so I was happy.

When the last ex-mortal turned to embers and bad memories, I heard someone let out a short gasp o pain. Leave rustled behind me, and I spun around to face whoever was behind me.

"Artemis?" I asked, seeing the goddess limp into view clutching her side with one hand and a bow with her other. Her hair was a mess and I'm pretty sure legs aren't supposed to look like hers did. "What happened, where have you been? Everyone thinks you just vanished!"

She sat down, still hurt. "Urunos, even merely possessing a demigod, proved to be a more difficult opponent than I'd thought. I was badly wounded, and even now I'm still recovering."

"But you're here, you're fighting!" I said. "You can help us!"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry Rae, but my powers are far too taxed for me to actually help you win this battle. I should still be resting, recovering right now."

"Then why did you help me? Why not just let them take me?" I asked.

"Because my brother isn't the only one who knows the futures of others," she said cryptically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. "If you're saying I'm going to be some big hero, let me tell you right now you're wrong. I mean no offense but I can barely hold a sword. I'm no hero…"

"But you have potential Rae," Artemis insisted. "You are stronger than you allow yourself to believe. You needn't draw strength from others when you can draw it from yourself."

"I'm just a girl from the Bronx," I said timidly. "What strength?"

"Find out for yourself," Artemis offered. She held a hunting knife out to me. I stared at it and her like she was nuts. What did she want me to do, charge into battle so I could get attacked and killed two seconds later?

"I suggest you take it," she said. "You're going to need it if you're going to stop him."

"Him who?" I asked. She just pointed.

There, in the mix of what was left of the cabins, I could just make out a very tall guy faintly glowing red, standing over someone. And that someone, I could tell, was Jacob.

"Jake!" I yelled, and ran out. Stupid me, I forgot to take the hunting knife Artemis had been offering. By the time I realized that and turned around, she was gone. What in the heck? I shook it off and sprinted out to the cabins.

"Jake!" I called, but neither he nor the glowing man standing over him heard me. I stopped, and looked at the bow in my hand. Could I hit a target this far out? I notched the arrow, about to find out.

I let it fly— and it missed by about a foot, whizzing by completely unnoticed. I groaned and readied another arrow. I aimed, exhaled slowly, and prayed this would be a better shot.

It was. It hit the guy standing over Jake with dead on accuracy, and his head and Jake's both jerked toward me. The red glow around the guy grew brighter, and Jake was wearing an expression of mixed relief and panic. I gulped at the sight of the glowing guy. I'd heard enough talk and seen enough footage on the web. I'd just shot Urunos himself. And he looked…well, mad.

I only had one arrow left, and it didn't seem like that one arrow was going to do it and save the day, so I ran. But Urunos was faster. I ran into what felt like a brick wall and fell back onto my butt. When I looked up, Urunos was standing in front of me.

I let out a small yelp before he grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off my feet. I heard Jake call out my name, but he sounded far off. I dropped my bow as spots filled my vision. Before I could die of suffocation though, I got thrown backward, rolling to a halt next to Jake's own sprawled out form.

"Hi…" I greeted weakly.

"Rae, use the sword!" was his response.

"What?"

"The sword!" he said, pointed to the ebony bladed weapon lying in the grass a few feet away from us. Urunos was stalking towards us, fire dancing on his fingers. I scrambled for the sword, scooped it up and held it in what I hoped was a defensive stance.

Urunos laughed and counted stepping forward, towards me. My hands shook and so did the weapon in my hands, but I tried to stand my ground. Emphasis on tried. I took more than a few steps back. Urunos was laughing the entire time like it was all some kind of joke. That's probably what I was to him, a joke.

Jake was watching helplessly from the ground. He looked like he was bleeding pretty badly. All around camp, soldiers and fighters and evens gods were hacking and slicing at the overwhelming numbers of the burnt out husks that flew down from the skies. There were just so many.

_Lower your weapon child, we both know you don't dare use it._ A voice advised in my head. It was cold, threatening, and it sounded like it wanted to eat me.

_Don't listen to him! Don't back down! You're strong Rae, prove it to him! _Another voice protested. This one was confident, hopeful, inspiring, and it had a distinct female tone to it.

Urunos stepped ever closer, and Jake was looking terrified. I thought about all the times Jacob had saved my life, how many times this whole mixed up world with its monsters and magic and all this other stuff my parents had never had to deal with had nearly driven me over the edge. All this time, I thought it had been Jacob keeping me glued together, that he was the only reason I was brave enough to grab a bow and practice rather than dig a hole and hide under a rock.

But what if it wasn't him? What is Jacob wasn't my source of strength? What if maybe, just maybe Artemis was right, and that _I _made myself strong. I looked down at the sword in my shaking hands and then at Urunos's neck. Only one way to find out.

I stabbed forward with the black bladed sword. It surprised Urunos as much as it did me, because he didn't block or dodge or anything. He just ended up with a neck full of sword. He flailed in pain, knocking me aside like a ragdoll and furiously wrenching the sword out of his body. Then, in anger, he snapped the sword in half, sending smaller fragments flying everywhere.

One larger piece landed next to me. It was about the size of my middle finger, and twice as thick with very pointy ends and sharp edges. It was as black as nightmare and it had a strange dark gleam to it. Urunos did not like this kind of metal for some reason, the fact that he was still clutching his neck in pain and letting out cries of agony was proof.

I saw my bow not far off, and I still had one arrow left in my quiver. Maybe, while Urunos was still distracted…

I fixed the fragment of the sword onto my last arrowhead, notched it, and aimed. Urunos finally stopped screaming and pulled his hand away, revealing his weird auto-stitching getting to work. I had one shot. I exhaled, and prayed I wouldn't miss.

The arrow flew and for a second I thought it was going to fly off and hit the broadside of a barn, but instead it buried itself into Urunos's side and he cried out again. He yanked the arrow out, but the black sword fragment was missing. He began furiously clawing at the puncture wound the arrow had left, crying out in pain.

"ARGH!" he yelled. "Curse you!"

He slammed his fist into the ground, and a wave of force rippled out, knocking everything within a mile radius onto its back, butt, or whatever. I stumbled over to Jacob and helped him up.

"What's happening?" I yelled over Urunos's cries of agony.

"The Stygian Iron is draining his essence faster than he can regenerate," Jacob explained, clutching his biggest wound. "It's literally sucking the life out of him!"

Urunos dug and clawed at the wound, but he didn't seemed to be making any progress with getting out the fragment.

"This…this isn't over!" he swore. "A mere sliver will not stop— argh! I will return half-bloods! I will return to destroy you all!"

He let out one last roar and shot up into the sky. The possessed mortals turned to watch him go, and cried out almost in what sounded like sadness. A wave of force rocketed out, knocking Jake and I back down again. I hit my head on something, and everything snapped to black.

…_**and you all thought Rae was going to die.**_

_**Yes, Urunos got his butt kicked by a mortal girl with a shard of Stygian Iron, but hey, Kronos got his butt kicked by a mortal girl with a blue plastic hairbrush. It fits, in my opinion.**_


	45. They're All Alive?

Jacob's POV

_Kid! _A voice murmured softly in my head. _Wake up!_

I moaned and rolled onto my stomach, feeling grass brush against my face now. What was I laying on? Where was I? Actually, I didn't care. I was tired. A little sleep wouldn't hurt anyone…

_Jacob, I've lost her!_

The voice was clearly Miz's, and I knew exactly who he was talking about when he said "her". My eyes shot open and I jumped to my feet. Rae was lying not too far away, still out cold. Scattered bits and pieces of cabins were all around me, some smoking. I saw a few motionless bodies here and there, but I couldn't tell if they were alive or dead or what.

Not that I exactly cared at that moment. I was busy running as fast as I could back to Half-Blood Hill where I'd left Alex.

"What do you mean you lost her?" I asked.

_I mean she let go of me and now I can't sense squat! _Miz retorted. _C'mon, pick up the pace! Run like you mean it! _

"Shut! IT! MIZ!" I screamed as I ran.

_Save your breath for running!_ Miz advised. That settles it. When this is over, I'm going to kill him.

I stumbled up the hill, panting by now. I reached the top, and the first thing I saw was Miz lying on the ground. The next thing I took in was the trail of blood leading away from the spot. I panicked and followed it as fast as I could to the huge pine tree that watched over all of camp. Slumped at its base was Alex, still wrapped in the Golden Fleece. But she wasn't moving.

"Alex!" I knelt down to her side, looking her over. I couldn't hear her breathing. My hand went to her neck, but when I couldn't feel her pulse there I tried her wrist with similar results. "No…no, no, no!"

"Alex, Alex don't die on me!" I begged. "Don't do this!"

This couldn't be happening. After everything she'd had to go through, everything we'd risked…

"Hades!" I yelled in anguish. "Hades I swear if you take her from me I'll throw you into Tartarus myself! Do you hear me? I swear on the River Styx, if you _dare _take her I'll tear apart your palace brick by brick!"

The air grew colder and the sky rumbled at my words, but I didn't care how mad I was making the gods. Alex didn't deserve this. Not only that, I couldn't stand that I'd been the one. I'd stabbed Alex. If she died, it really was all my fault. And I couldn't except that.

"Alex!" I begged. "C'mon Alex…"

She didn't respond, just laid there motionless. I admit it, I cried. I pulled her limp head to mine, touching our foreheads. Tears rolled down my cheeks. But then, I felt something on her neck. A soft, light beat beneath her skin. It came again, and again, until it resumed a rhythmic beat.

Alex gasped, her eyes shot open, and she went into a coughing fit, but she was _alive_. When she settled down, she looked at me with a weak and weary face.

"What's got you all worked up?" Alex asked lightly, referring to my tears.

"Shut up," I said, hugging her.

* * *

It was back where the Pit had first been based. Urunos was still in pain, tearing open his own skin to dig in and fish out the shard. Once he got it out, he tossed it aside and let his fibers heal the wound he'd dug open in his own flesh.

It was unbelievable. Victory had been in his grasp, and then it had been snatched away by a child! A _mortal _child. Evan Nakamura, and a few of the remaining demigods that belonged to Urunos watch silently but with interest. The rest of the Pit's base, and good portions of the surrounding area were filled with possessed mortals wandering aimlessly.

"What happens now?" Evan aksed his master.

Urunos glared at him, shutting him up. "What happens now? What happens now?"

Evan flinched, retreating back. Urunos settled down slightly. "What happens now…We will let the Olympians have their victory. But this…is only the beginning. They will pay for this. Let them fight. Let them watch as I destroy city after city. This entire, feeble world will know my name and tremble. I will destroy everything and then, when they feel they have nothing left to lose, I will destroy everything. Then, and only then, will my revenge be complete."

"Of course," Evan agreed, bowing slightly.

"Let the war for this world begin," Urunos said darkly.

* * *

"Jacob!" someone called out.

"Jacob!" another person repeated.

"Alex?" a third person shouted.

Alex and I pulled apart, looking down the hill at the small search party that was walking through camp. "Hello?" "Anybody?" "Jacob, if you're dead, don't say anything!" "Shut up Henry!"

"We should probably get back," I said. I stood up and offered a hand to help her up, but I guess I'd crossed that line where there was really nothing left, and I collapsed to the ground again. Alex giggled as she stood up on her own.

"Better let me take this one," she said, offering her hand down to _me_.

"There goes my pride…" I muttered, taking her hand. She pulled me up and put my arm around her shoulder. Together we walked down the hill, her supporting me this time.

"Would you prefer I carry you?" she teased.

"No, this is fine," I said quickly.

"Hey!" Han shouted, seeing us. "Hey there they are! Guys, I found them!"

Pretty soon Rae, Roxanne, Tony, Han, and everyone else who'd survived was surrounding us. It was pretty much a huge babble, but I caught words like retreat, won, Olympus, and now.

"Hey, hey!" I shouted, holding up my hand. "Slow it down guys. What happened?"

"After Urunos left, the rest of his army just froze up like they were lost," Henry explained. "We mopped them up like cake and got here as soon as we could."

"Figures you guys would trash the place while we were gone," Tony added.

"The gods had to return to Olympus not too long ago," Roxanne explained. "Henry and Tony and I were already here when they left. Said something about an important council or something. You know something form the way they were talking it sounded like—"

"Ah, there you guys are!" a voice said. We turned around to see Hermes standing behind us.

"You were…looking for us?" Roxanne asked.

"You just left like five minutes ago…" Tony added, "and it's not like we'd be going anywhere…how hard could it have been to find us again?"

"Hey, this is a _big _camp alright!" Hermes defended. "Doesn't exactly help that all the landmarks I usually use to find my way around are blown to pieces…"

"I know, I got lost looking for the toilet just the other day!" Henry agreed.

I remembered that. He'd been _in _the bathroom, looking for the stall. I tried not to facepalm at the mere mention of that memory. Even Hermes looked a little taken back.

"Right…" he said warily. He took a step away from Henry. "Anyway!" He pointed to me, Alex, Rae, Roxanne, and pretty much everyone else standing there, "You, you, you and you, plus you two and…you over there in the back, and that one over there! Yeah, I'm going to need you all to come with me."

"What about me?" James asked.

"No, you can stay here," Hermes assured. He turned to the rest of us. "Alright everyone, who's every traveled like one of the gods before?"

"Wait what?" I asked.

There was a blinding flash, and when my eyes readjusted we weren't in Camp Half-Blood anymore. We were in the throne room of Olympus, surrounded by some of the most powerful beings alive. I even saw Artemis, who'd been missing since Urunos's first strike at camp half-blood. Her head was bandaged and one of her arms was in a sling, but she looked alright for someone we'd all assumed to be dead.

And standing before the gods was Kronos himself, hands bound together by thick Celestial Bronze chains.

"Ah, perfect timing," Zeus said. "Now we can get started."

"This should be good," Ares muttered.

_**Ah, nothing is ever so simple. So what's going on Olympus? What kind of horror does Urunos have planned? What will the result of Artemis's advice to Rae be? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	46. Enjoy Yourselves

_**Ah. Almost done with this. Just need one last chapter for Rae and Alex to say goodbye (and a few other things) then I can finally take a break! A short one, don't worry. Demigod Files 2.0 should be out soon, but until then I'll see you around! Read and Review.**_

"Well, let's get this started we've got a lot to talk about before this meeting is over," Poseidon said. "And I really don't like these meetings…"

"Maybe if I could get a drink…?" Dionysus asked.

"NO!" was the unanimous answer.

"Well?" Kronos asked. "Can we move this along? And can someone get these chains off of me?"

"Absolutely not," Zeus said. "I have a good mind to send you to Tartarus right here, right now. Hades, you've got the sword, make it happen."

"With pleasure," the god of the underworld said, drawing his weapon.

"Wait!" Kronos said, cringing. "You can't get rid of me yet…you still need me."

"We brought you back to defeat Urunos, and you failed to deliver that," Athena said. "As such, you're nothing but a threat to us now, and there's no reason for us not to end this and correct our mistake."

"Ah yes, mistake," Kronos said. "The mistake you all made. How shameful it must be, to have had to ask for my help. And the worst part for you is it didn't even get the results you wanted. You made a sacrifice, and it didn't pay off."

Kronos cried out in pain as Zeus fired a lightning bolt dead at his chest. He shuddered as the shock subsided, and glared at his son. "Ow."

"But…" Kronos continued, "you still need me."

"What?" Hermes asked.

"Think about how horrible the fight against Urunos was going before I showed up. Think about how much more time the demigods had to prepare because I was there alongside you, slowing him down. I admit, the legend of how I defeated my father in single combat was a bit…exaggerated. But I _can _defeat him, and together, with all of us he will stand no chance."

"He's weakened," Athena noted. "We could easily finish him off now without your help."

"You think he'd give you a chance to attak before he's back to full strength. And that's another thing. Urunos is…different from before. Ichor does not run from his veins, he heals to fast, he feels no pain. Something has changed him into a threat none of us have faced. All of you together fought to your best but could not stop him. When I joined, we had a chance. We only needed more time."

"…so what you're saying is you screwed up and you want a second chance," Hermes summed up. "Eh…I don't buy it."

Athena bit her lip. "He's right. We're going to need everyone we can get…put it to a vote?"

The hands went up both for and against. By one vote, Kronos was allowed to stay and continued helping. But until he was needed he was going to be under strict lockdown. No one really seemed to like the decision, but what's done is done.

"Moving on to the heroes of this battle," Hera said. "Alex di Angelo, step forward."

Alex cast a glance at me before reluctantly stepped forward and bowed. Zeus permitted her to rise a moment later. I wasn't sure what this was about.

"Well?" Ares asked. "Is she clean or what?"

Some of the goddesses were staring at Alex with scrutiny, but she kept a straight face as her eyes darted from one god to the next. After a moment, Hera nodded. "Alex di Angelo is clear of Urunos's control."

"She still shouldn't be standing here," Hades commented. "Her time has come and gone. But this one—" he pointed to me. "I admit, the boy has nerve. To swear to such threats against a god…I have half a mind to blast you here and now Jackson."

I balled my hands into fists. Here we go, time to negotiate for my life…

"But…I'm also very impressed. You know, you're father once threatened me. Held his sword to my throat. You, like your father would dare to stand against a god, someone far more powerful than you. I can't think of a better hero to lead the fight against Urunos."

I was shocked at first, but remembered to bow my thanks. "Thank you."

"Moving on to the point I would like to bring up," Artemis said. "Rae, step forward."

Rae swallowed and stepped forward along with me and Alex. She was looking…scared. Very, very scared.

"Relax Rae, no one's going to blast you to pieces," Artemis assured her. "You showed great courage today. A mere mortal, taking on the god of the heavens. And winning too."

Rae blushed, rubbing the back of her neck. "It was nothing…"

"Oh, I beg to differ," Artemis said. "You proved today Rae you are strong. You do have a long way to go, but you have potential. I lost many good Hunters in this conflict, and there will be many more before it is fully over. But, Rae of the Bronx, Defender of Camp Half-Blood, will you join the Hunt?"

Rae was dumbstruck, and so was I. "Me? Gosh…I don't know what to say…except…I guess…"

I watched her closely, but out of the corner of my eye, I thought I could see Alex crossing her fingers. I wasn't sure what to think. On one hand, her was Rae being given a shot at immortality and a life of adventure. No more hiding and running, she'd be looking out for herself now. On the other hand…Hunters and boys didn't usually mix.

"…yes. I'll do it," Rae agreed.

Artemis smiled, and one Hunter's oath later, Rae was immortal. Well, pretty much anyways. She looked to me and gave me one somewhat sad hug goodbye. "I'm sorry Jake but…I don't know, I want this. I want to forge my own path, not just piggyback onto someone else's."

"I…I understand," I said. Rae smiled.

"Excuse me but, now that all of that's all out of the way," Dionysus said. "We won, most of us are still alive, and Urunos is at least for now in full retreat. I say, let's celebrate!"

There was a chorus of approval. Hades hoped off his throne and led away Kronos to where he'd be kept until he was needed, and everyone else got ready for an Olympian party. Let me tell you, it was something else…

The others from Camp Half-Blood who'd stayed behind were brought up, the senior demigods were brought up, and one really lost Chinese takeout guy somehow ended up there too.

I was relaxing, talking with Henry and Will. We were locked into what I'm sure any girl would call a testosterone fest, but we were simply trying to figure out who'd pulled the most badass move during the battle. Will was bragging about some stunt he'd pulled that involved running over a swath of Embers, Henry was making wild claims about toppling a small building, and I of course brought up my multiple fights with Urunos himself.

We were laughing, bashing each other, and enjoying ourselves when Alex ran up to me laughing and pulled me away from the guys.

"C'mon dance with me!"

"Wait, no I can't dance!" I complained as she dragged me away. Will was laughing, and Henry walked off. A few moments later, Alex and I were joined by Henry and…Roxanne?

"Aphrodite owed me a favor," Henry explained Roxanne's change in demeanor. "Tomorrow, she'll wake up hating me like always, but tonight…"

I shook my head as he and Roxanne danced. I wondered how exactly he'd gotten a goddess to owe him a favor, and the love goddess no less, but it was working out fairly well for him. Alex and I took a break after a while, and Han stumbled over to us with a black eye.

"Oh, hey guys," he said with a stupid grin on his face.

"You tried flirting with the Hunters didn't you?" Alex asked.

"I _had _to, I just couldn't help myself…" Han bleated.

"And how'd that go over with them?" I joked.

We all laughed. Sure, tomorrow we'd have to worry about fixing camp and preparing to go back to war against Urunos. Tomorrow the gods would have to resume negotiations with the mortals, work out a real and solid agreement on this whole mortal armies working for us business, and tomorrow we'd have to have a ceremony for the fallen in battle. But tonight, we were just having fun and enjoying being alive.

"_Someday, when the world doesn't need me to be its savior, and when I am _wholesomely _unattached, we can be together?"_

Wholesomely unattached: check.

**_Yeah, this was my plan for Rae all along. Sorry Jacae fans, but it's Jalex all the way. Wait, that came out wrong..._**


	47. Epilogue

_**This is it. Just a nice little epilogue to wrap things up. And for some reason…it's in Third Person POV. **_

Rae cast one long look out at Camp Half-Blood. It was badly scarred from the battles it had had to endure, but somehow it still seemed so peaceful. It seemed to her like it had been a long time since she first pushed through the border, even though it couldn't have been more than a few days. So much of her life had changed so fast.

From normal girl to orphan, to girlfriend of the world's last hope to a Hunter of Artemis. She'd most certainly come a long way. She walked up the hill, Artemis and the other two remaining Hunters were supposed to be by soon, and then they'd all be off to do who knew what.

When she reached the top of the hill and the great pine tree that waited there though, she found something else waiting for her.

"Figured I'd catch you here," Alex di Angelo said with a smirk as she leaned on the tree that had once been her mother.

"What's this about?" Rae asked, her eyebrow raised.

"Well, I didn't get much time to talk to you last night," Alex said. "Big choice you made yesterday, becoming a Hunter…"

"I know, but…I don't know, I think I want this. I really do," Rae said.

"Well don't think, say it like you mean it," Alex teased. "This is immortality we're talking about here, not the answer to a calculus problem."

"You don't even know what calculus is," Rae shot back. "Neither of us do."

Alex chuckled. "Yeah. But you know…he does."

Rae rolled her eyes. "Ah, that's what this is about."

Alex gave her a mocking glare. "What? You think I came to talk to you about _that_? Maybe I just came to complain about losing my sword. It was given to me by my parents. Saved my life several times too…"

"Is that what you came here about?" Rae asked.

Alex sighed. "No, not really. I'm going to miss that sword, yeah. But… I don't get you Rae. Your dashing knight in shining armor swoops in, saves your life and whisks you out of your old boring life and into all of this, you manage to get together with him…and then you let it go?"

"Maybe I'm a bit more complicated than you think," Rae teased. "But seriously, with Jacob it was like he was keeping me strong, like I needed him just to survive in all of this because I couldn't do it on my own. I'm learning now. Learning that maybe I don't need other people to make me strong."

"You're doing a lot more than any other mortal has so far," Alex admitted.

Rae looked back to camp, down at the cabins far off. More specifically, to one cabin that was still standing. The Demigod Cabin, home to the camp's only Hybrids.

"Take care of him," Rae said. Alex didn't have to ask who she meant. "Gods know he needs someone watching his back."

"I'll watch out for him," Alex assured.

"Is that _all _you'll do Alex?" Rae hinted.

Alex shook her head, blushing every so slightly. "Oh, believe me, I want to…but I can't just hog him to myself when the whole world needs him. And that's what I'd do too…keep him to myself."

Rae gave her a concerned look. "If you say so. Just remember Alex, we're in a war. In war, people can die and things can change all in the blink of an eye. Sometimes, you can't just wait around for the right time. You have to make your own time."

"…who was your dad's godly parent?" Alex asked. "Because I think Aphrodite could be a serious possibility."

"I'll probably never know," Rae admitted after a brief laugh. "So…we're fine now? No more hating each other, we're over it?"

"Not so fast," Alex said, holding up a hand. "This whole Jacob issue might be past us now, but this whole peppy, happy go lucky attitude you insist on…still not working out for me. And you still owe me a sword."

Rae just laughed. "You know, fighting aside, I'm going to miss you."

"Ah, you'll see me around," Alex told her. "Someday, when your quiver's empty and your back's against the wall, it'll be me pulling you sorry butt out of the fire."

"Um…thanks?"

"I never said I meant that in a good way," Alex told her, deadly serious. Rae got quiet until Alex let out a light laugh. "But…I did. I'll take care of Jacob, you…you take care of yourself Rae. Kay?"

"Will do," Rae promised.

"Because I'd hate for someone else to get to you before I even get the chance."

"You just had to throw that one in, didn't you?"

Alex nodded. "Absolutely."

_**Waaay short, but it's the Epilogue. Give me a few days to get the stuff laid out for Demigod Files 2.0. Until then, see ya around!**_

_**Wow…20 more chapters than prison of the gods. Yeesh. My head is hurteding. At least I can take a break and get back to the classic stuff. See you within the week.**_


End file.
